The Chief Minister's Office of Chhattisgarh announced on 3 July 2026 that a polio immunisation campaign has reached Kanhai Guda in Konta, Bastar — marking what the government describes as the first time such a drive has accessed this remote village since India's independence.

The CMO posted on X: 'Badalte Bastar ki swasth aur khushhal tasveer — Aazadi ke baad pehli baar Konta ke Kanhai Guda mein pahuncha Polio Abhiyan' ('A healthy and happy picture of a changing Bastar — for the first time since independence, the Polio campaign has reached Kanhai Guda in Konta'). The post signals a governance milestone in one of India's most insurgency-affected regions.

Context

Konta is a tehsil in Sukma district, located within the Bastar division of southern Chhattisgarh. The area has a predominantly tribal population and has historically been among the most difficult to access for government health workers due to decades of left-wing extremist activity. Villages like Kanhai Guda have remained outside the reach of routine immunisation rounds for generations.

The announcement frames this development as part of a 'changing Bastar' — the state government's broader narrative of restoring governance and public services in areas that were long under the shadow of insurgency.

Policy Backdrop

India launched the Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme in 1995 to vaccinate all children under the age of five against poliovirus. The country was declared polio-free by the World Health Organization in 2014, following the last reported case in 2011. However, surveillance and immunisation rounds continue under the National Polio Surveillance Project, established in 1997, to ensure the disease does not re-emerge.

Chhattisgarh intensified health outreach into Naxal-affected districts as security conditions improved through the 2010s and into the 2020s. Similar drives have been prioritised in other Left Wing Extremism-affected districts across central India, with the goal of closing persistent gaps in immunisation coverage among tribal communities.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries are tribal children under five years of age in Kanhai Guda and surrounding villages of Konta tehsil. For families in these settlements, the arrival of health workers represents access to a state service that has been absent since independence — a gap of nearly 79 years. Community health workers and ASHA workers who facilitated ground-level outreach in a challenging terrain are also central to this effort.

The development carries symbolic weight beyond immunisation: it signals that the Chhattisgarh government's administrative reach is extending into pockets of Bastar that were previously inaccessible, with potential knock-on effects for other health, education, and welfare schemes.

What's Next

The state health department is expected to extend similar outreach to other remote villages in Sukma and adjoining Bastar blocks in subsequent immunisation rounds. Authorities may also integrate these villages into Mission Indradhanush, the national programme targeting full routine immunisation coverage for children and pregnant women in underserved areas. Sustained coverage — not just a single visit — will determine whether this marks a lasting shift in health access for Bastar's most remote communities.