Students in Assam are not attending school in fear of the ‘RSS vaccine’. The panic has set among the parents as well. This fear is an aftermath of a widespread rumour that this RSS vaccine would be administered in schools to make students infertile.
According to the rumours, this RSS vaccine is a population check plan of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). As it turns out, parents, especially in the Muslim-majority areas, have stopped sending their wards to school in fear of infertility. The authorities visited many affected areas but could not relieve the fear of the people.
This rumour has hit areas such as Chirang, Baksa, Barpeta, Nalbari, Kamrup (rural) and Kamrup (metro) districts. Also, some of these areas showed a hectic growth in population in recent years.
On Tuesday, several parents took home their children in between classes in a Guwahati school following rumours.
“We’ve never heard of vaccines being injected around the navel but that is what they are doing. We have heard that some children died in lower Assam after they were administered such vaccines. So, we won’t allow our children to be administered the vaccine,” some parents said.
Notably, the Health department of Assam has recently launched a vaccination drive against Japanese Encephalitis (JE). The vaccine is meant for people in the age group of 1-2 and 15-65 years and it is also being administered to students in schools in Bongaigaon, Morigaon, Nalbari and Cachar districts. Although, they are not the state where the rumour is in circulation.
