Yogi urges polio drops for every child on World Polio Day

On World Polio Day, 24 October 2026, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath urged every citizen to pledge that polio will never return to India, and asked parents to give every child the two polio drops. Posting in Hindi on X, he wrote that Indians are proud the country is polio free today, and he thanked the doctors and health workers who made that result possible.

Yogi Adityanath joined other chief ministers and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in marking World Polio Day with posts on X. Gadkari said every child has the right to protection through timely vaccination and access to health services. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said no child should miss the polio vaccine dose, and Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Saini paid tribute to the health workers behind the campaign. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma also appealed for wider awareness of vaccination.

Why polio drops still matter in a polio free India

India recorded its last indigenous wild poliovirus case in West Bengal in January 2011, and the World Health Organization South-East Asia Region certified India polio free in March 2014. That status has held since then, but health officials say it still needs routine immunisation, surveillance and campaign rounds to hold. The virus remains active in neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan, and India runs vaccination teams along its borders to lower the risk of the virus being brought in.

The polio drops are given to children under five during campaign rounds and through routine immunisation. Parents are advised to check a child's immunisation card against the schedule given by a paediatrician or the nearest health centre, and to take children under five for drops during campaign rounds. Any sudden weakness or paralysis in a child should be reported to a doctor promptly.

Polio drops and the Pulse Polio drive

The Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme began in 1995 and organised repeated National Immunization Days on which oral drops were given to hundreds of millions of children under five each year. The programme worked under the wider Universal Immunisation Programme and drew support from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which began in 1988 and coordinated resources and surveillance across countries where polio was endemic.

World Polio Day is observed each year on 24 October to mark the birthday of Jonas Salk, who developed the first polio vaccine, and the 2026 theme was "One day, one focus: ending polio for good." The theme stressed vaccinating every child, including children in remote areas, detecting poliovirus early through close monitoring, and involving families, health workers and governments in immunisation.

Local events marked World Polio Day as well. The Rotary Club Chandausi Lakshya held a polio awareness rally in Chandausi on 24 October 2026, asking families to make sure children aged 0 to 5 receive polio drops and to help keep the country polio free. Such rallies repeat at district level what the chief ministers said online, and they reach parents who may not follow social media posts.

Yogi Adityanath asked citizens to keep spreading awareness so that a disease like polio is never allowed to resurface. His message repeated the long running campaign line of two drops of life, and it tied the work of health workers in the past to the duty of parents in the present. For families, the practical point stayed simple: two polio drops, given on time, for every child under five. A polio free India depends on that routine holding in every district, year after year. The campaign message has stayed the same for years: two polio drops for every child under five, on time, every round. Health workers repeat it because polio drops only protect a community when no child is missed.