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Dalai Lama launches anti-polio campaign

By Lobsang Wangyal | Tibet Sun

The Dalai Lama administers pulse polio drop to an infant in Bodh Gaya, India, on 10 January 2010. India is observing National Immunisation Day today to eradicate polio.Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal/India

The Dalai Lama launched the Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme by administering pulse polio drops to two infants to eradicate the disease.

The Tibetan leader, who has been in Buddhism’s holiest site of Bodh Gaya since 4 January, administered a few anti-polio drops to two infants on India’ National Immunisation Day, observed on 10 January.

He said he saw a few polio-affected youths in the streets of Bodh Gaya. “Preventive measure is very important for protection of the children for good and normal life.”

Reports say that the Pulse Polio 2010 Programme aims to vaccinate around 170 million children in India, with an estimated 2.5 million babies likely to receive a new polio drops. Polio, which is incurable, leads to irreversible paralysis.

The main feature of the campaign, which aims to completely eradicate polio, includes administering a bivalent oral polio vaccine (BOPV) to millions of children under the age of five. The oral drop was introduced for the first time in the country.

After launching the polio campaign, the Dalai Lama paid a brief visit to the Mahabodhi Temple where he prayed before the Buddha statue inside the temple and participated in a prayer session in the court yard.

The Tibetan leader has been giving a series of teachings for five days, which was attended by an estimated 50,000 devotees from all over the world. Thousands of devotees lined up to bid him farewell, as he left for a four-day visit to the Chandragiri Tibetan settlement in Orissa in east India.

According to reports, the Dalai Lama will inaugurate a newly-constructed Buddhist monastery in Chandragiri. The settlement, which was started in early sixties, is home to more than 7,000 Tibetan refugees.

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