This article describes the efforts of the polio eradication initiative to vaccinate children in underserved villages throughout the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It describes the components and successes of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Under Served Strategy in promoting vaccine acceptance in resistant areas. This strategy was employed successfully in the village of Dhakka, a community of 1,200 Muslim households in the district of Jyotiba Phule Nagar, which is seen here as a model community for the effectiveness of social mobilisation activities of this kind.

Initially, the inhabitants of Dhakka were fearful that the polio vaccine contained elements not suitable for Muslims and that the vaccine might cause impotence. The effects of these rumours were exacerbated by the refusal of religious leaders to allow positive polio messaging to come from mosques, and by the issuing of negative "fatwas" (statements of Islamic law) questioning the vaccine contents. Vaccinators and volunteers were frequently met with abuse in the village, and occasionally threatened at knife-point. In addition, families were suspicious about the high level of polio vaccination activities when their other basic health care needs were not being met.

Months of strategic planning and repeated interventions by UNICEF and its implementing partners in Dhakka were successful in convincing and mobilising community leaders to help reduce opposition to the vaccine. This process involved many meetings with influential villagers and, subsequently, the approach of Muslim leaders at religious gatherings and Mazaars. Through their efforts, the village has seen a tremendous turn-around in polio immunisation. Not a single resistant household remains, and all 13 mosques are now making announcements in support of each vaccination round.

UNICEF India website, January 7 2008.