Kaur Gurinder, Ahmed Shaik Iftikhar
Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID), Chandigarh, India.
Population Research Centre, Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID), Chandigarh, India.
Dialogues Health. 2022 Dec 8;2:100092. doi: 10.1016/j.dialog.2022.100092. eCollection 2023 Dec.
India's immunisation programme is one of the largest in the world and achieved great success over the years, however, some significant gaps are still observable in terms of achieving universal immunisation of children. Religion has emerged as a strong correlate for immunisation rates at national, state and global level. It has been observed that the rate of immunisation among children from Muslim families is comparatively less at global as well as at national level. Therefore, the paper attempts to understand immunisation trends among Muslims children from the north-western Indian state of Punjab. Based on the cross-sectional study of 400 households from district Sangrur of Punjab, results of the study show that rate of full immunisation among children from Muslim families was 88 per cent and none of the children were non-immunised. Reasons stated for partial immunisation of children included distrust of the government and belief that it would cause infertility amongst children. The present study reveals that religion per se does not appear to be influence rates of full immunisation. Geographical location, embeddedness of the community in the larger political and social milieu of their area, reach and acceptance of health workers at grassroots level emerge as strong factors contributing to higher rates of immunisation amongst Muslim children of Malerkotla.
印度的免疫计划是世界上规模最大的计划之一，多年来取得了巨大成功。然而，在实现儿童全面免疫方面仍存在一些明显差距。在国家、邦和全球层面，宗教已成为与免疫接种率密切相关的因素。据观察，在全球和国家层面，穆斯林家庭儿童的免疫接种率相对较低。因此，本文试图了解印度西北部旁遮普邦穆斯林儿童的免疫趋势。基于对旁遮普邦桑格鲁尔区400户家庭的横断面研究，研究结果显示，穆斯林家庭儿童的全程免疫接种率为88%，没有儿童未接种疫苗。儿童部分接种疫苗的原因包括对政府的不信任以及认为接种疫苗会导致儿童不孕。本研究表明，宗教本身似乎并未影响全程免疫接种率。地理位置、社区在其所在地区更大的政治和社会环境中的融入程度、基层卫生工作者的覆盖范围和接受程度，是导致马勒科特拉穆斯林儿童免疫接种率较高的重要因素。
