BANGALORE: Thirteen-year-old Arvind Sampige has been knocking on doors of houses all summer. If no one answers, he returns to meet the occupants.

No, he is not one of those young entrepreneurs trying to make some money. He is part of a large fraternity of schoolchildren who are involved in the Pulse Polio campaign.

Over 97,500 volunteers, including supervisors of the Health Department and officials of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, school and college teachers, scouts and guides and the national cadet corps have been assisting in the implementation of Pulse Polio.

So far, the volunteers have visited over 12,000 houses in the city in the first phase of the immunisation programme. More than 1.25 lakh children have received polio drops during the door-to-door campaign. The volunteers on the door-to-door campaign enquire whether children below five years have been given polio drops.

If a child has not been given polio drops, the volunteers, who carry polio vaccines, immunise the child. The information is recorded.

"The polio campaign in the State has been very successful in the past few years thanks to the door-to-door campaign," Vijayalakshmi, Health Officer (South) of the BMP, says. The students involved in the campaign "are conscientious and fulfil the task." "They make sure that all houses in a street are covered," she adds.

This is the second time Arvind is taking part in the campaign. "Although it is a lot of work on a hot summer day, it is interesting and I have something to keep me occupied during my summer vacation," he says.

In 2003, the State reported 36 polio cases, most of them from the northern districts. The last case was reported in February last year. If no polio cases are reported from Karnataka in the next two years, the State will be declared "polio-free." "We are working towards achieving a polio-free State. We are going to knock on all doors till we cover every child," Dr. Vijayalakshmi says.

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