Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the Election Commission may have been left with little choice but to demand that polio campaign hoardings carrying pictures of Amitabh Bachchan be pulled down given the star’s association with the ruling Samajwadi Party. But a study commissioned by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and UNICEF acknowledges the Big B effect on polio immunisation coverage in Uttar Pradesh, which is the epicentre of the disease in the country.

Ministry sources say that having Bachchan off the air and hoardings for the next two months will be a “big blow” to the drive. And that while “pressure” to replace the superstar in the campaign — Shah Rukh Khan is one name — has existed for a while, the sources say “Khan is unlikely to have the impact Bachchan has had on the polio effort”.

Worse, the ban on polio campaign hoardings displaying photographs of Bachchan as well as Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Ahmad Hasan comes at a time when the eradication programme has been accelerated, with more immunisation rounds scheduled for the next few months.

The study, commissioned by the Health Ministry and UNICEF and conducted by the Social and Rural Research Institute in January this year, found that 73.6 per cent guardians with children under the age of five in lower socio-economic categories could recall the television advertisement featuring Bachchan.

The study also determined that the campaign had a positive impact. The percentage of “caregivers” who reported taking their children to polio booths was higher among those who were exposed to the TV campaign (73 per cent) than those had not seen it (55 per cent). The study was conducted in 19 districts of western Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

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