Mumbai: “If someone tells me that they vaccinated their child because they heard me say it, I think that will be one of the biggest box office successes of my life,” says Kareena Kapoor Khan. The actress recently joined the Swasth Immunised India campaign and was also appointed as the brand ambassador.
“I think that it is very important to protect infections and fatal diseases through vaccination. It is the awareness that I can spread to other mothers —prevention is better than cure. We are spending so much on cure and in hospitals. We need to believe in immunisation. We hope every child gets immunised. The study says that five lakh children do not survive because they are not vaccinated. Since the birth of Taimur, I have always said that my life is in his hands. He is my life. The most important thing a mother wants is the safety of her child and his wellbeing. As a family, when you know someone like newborn falls sick, the impact is much more when an elder falls sick,” says the actress.
Kareena says that she learnt a lot about immunisation only after her son Taimur’s birth. “Taimur is on vaccination journey at the moment and hence I researched and educated myself about all this. It is important to try and tell every mother around the length and breadth of the country. The idea is to reach out to the remotest of villages and reach every nook and cranny of India. A lot of mothers in India don’t have any idea about it. We have to learn from how we eradicated polio, we can promise a better life for our little ones. The idea is to educate the masses to believe in immunisation. When a friend tells you their personal experience you trust that person more than the doctor,” she explains.
Kareena says that a literacy campaign will need to accompany such campaigns. “This is going to be the toughest project of my career because it is personal. It is something that I am experiencing myself with Taimur. I have hope and I want to stress on one more important thing which is female literacy. Without mother having the knowledge to take her child to get vaccinated at camps. I want the public support and without that we will be nothing,” says the actress.
