Freida Pinto proud of India becoming 'polio free'

Freida Pinto, who serves as Global Brand Ambassador of Plan International's "Because I am a Girl" campaign, talked about World Health Organization declaring India polio free.

The 29-year-old actress said that though the experts believed that India, which had half the world's cases in 2009, and 200,000 in the 1980s, would remain the most polio-endemic region in the world, the country hasn't reported a new case since early 2011, CNN reported.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said that India has shown the world that there is no such thing as impossible, and it is likely the greatest lesson and the greatest inspiration for the rest of the world.

Pinto said that this achievement required tireless efforts and determination from many people on the ground and without them this would not have been possible.

She added that the global health community is still short on funding for vaccinations and countries such as Australia should reaffirm their support to make the world polio free by 2018.