Parents to face fine, jail term for refusing children vaccinations

KARACHI: Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori has signed the Sindh Immunization and Epidemics Control Bill 2023, promulgating the law for imposing fines and jail terms to parents refusing vaccinations to their children.

The Sindh Immunization and Epidemics Control Bill 2023 promulgated the regulation for imposing fines and penalties on parents who are refusing to vaccinate their children.

Under the law, the concerned deputy commissioner (DC) has been given powers to impose penalties under Section (1). The accused parents will face a one-month jail term and Rs50,000 fines.

In February, it emerged that over 62,000 parents refused vaccination to their children during the nationwide polio vaccination campaign from January 02-29.

In the anti-polio campaign, which was held in January in three phases, 62,411 parents refused to administer the polio vaccine to their children.

Most of the parents who refused the polio vaccine to their children belonged to Sindh, according to sources. In Sindh, 37,008 parents refused polio vaccine, while in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 20,305 parents refused vaccine administration.

Moreover, in Balochistan 4,902 parents, in Islamabad 141 families and in Punjab 36 parents refused polio vaccine administration to their children.

According to the figures shared by the authorities in Karachi East 2.4 per cent, Korangi district 1.2 pct, Karachi South 1.1 pct, Keamari district 1.3 pct, Karachi Central 1.7 per cent and in Malir district 0.9 per cent parents refused the vaccine in the polio vaccination campaign, sources said.

In Hyderabad district 0.2 pct families’ refused the administration of the polio vaccine to their children.