Three men who spearheaded the movement to start mass vaccination
of children At the Polio Summit in New Delhi this weekend,
Rotarians would be celebrating the country's first polio-free
year. They form the backbone of a movement that has resulted in
polio immunisation programme becoming a routine in every State.
Though the movement began as an earnest effort of a few well-
meaning members of the Rotary Club of Madras, their unwavering
confidence in themselves and the government has resulted in
generations of children walking tall and proud. The war to
annihilate polio in the country began on September 19, 1979,
when an innocuous question from Vellore-based Rotarian Jacob
John at a press conference resulted in a commitment to raise
funds to provide vaccines for measles from Kenneth Hobbs, a
Rotarian from Canada. Srikrishna Laxman Chitale, one of the
three Rotarians to spearhead the measles vaccine programme in
the country, says Rotarians had been conducting immunisation
camps in schools for several years. In Co