‘No polio case in India for 11 months ’
The country has not seen a case of polio in the last 11 months and if the situation continues for another three years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) will declare polio eradicated from the country.
Announcing this at a press conference on Wednesday, newly-elected President of Rotary International Kalyan Banerjee said: “Rotary has been working for a long time to eradicate polio. We have not seen a case for the last 11 months. For now, we hope this trend continues till the end of monsoon.”
Banerjee said Rotary’s main focus in South Asia, which was polio eradication, will continue even as it takes up other projects like promoting literacy and providing clean and safe drinking water.
The focus of Rotary in South Asia will be determined at the next Board meeting of Rotary International which consists of 17 members across 10 countries, Banerjee explained.
On the occasion, Rotary District 3190 launched three projects for children. One is to provide English dictionaries to 75,000 students of Class 8 studying in government schools. The second aims at providing solar lighting in government girls hostels in rural areas. The third project will focus on providing innovative educational tools for students from Class 1 to 10.
The tools have been developed by three IIT engineers.
Banerjee said Rotary continued to work with youth across the world to promote peace and understanding by offering a scholarship programme.
“The scholarship programme is now offered in six selected universities across the world which offer courses in peace studies. Students who undertook this scholarship are now working in various national and international organisations as committed individuals,”
Banerjee said.
He spoke of the increasing Indian presence in Rotary with the second highest membership after the US.
