Govt may repurpose CoWin for its immunisation drive

Govt may repurpose CoWin for its immunisation drive

Subject: Governance

Section: Schemes

Context: The Centre is planning to repurpose the CoWin platform for India’s Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) and other national health programmes while continuing with its current function of recording Covid vaccination and issuing certificates.

Content:

• CoWIN is a national platform for digital ecosystem to be used to effectively roll out and scale up the mechanism for COVID Vaccine Distribution System.
• It was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) to help agencies keep a track of Covid-19 vaccination programme and allow Indian citizens to apply for a Covid-19 vaccine shot.
• As part of platform the government developed CoWIN-20 app for real-time monitoring of covid-19 vaccine.
• It will integrate with real-time data from cold storage facilities with integration from eVIN (Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network).

UNIVERSAL IMMUNIZATION PROGRAMME

• Immunization Programme is one of the key interventions for protection of children from life threatening conditions, which are preventable. It is one of the largest immunization programme in the world and a major public health intervention in the country.
• Immunization Programme in India was introduced in 1978 as Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI)
• The programme gained momentum in 1985 and was expanded as Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) to be implemented in phased manner to cover all districts in the country by 1989-90.
• UIP become a part of Child Survival and Safe Motherhood Programme in 1992 Since, 1997, immunization activities have been an important component of National Reproductive and Child Health Programme and is currently one of the key areas under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) since 2005
• Under the Universal Immunization Programme, Government of India is providing vaccination to prevent seven vaccine preventable diseases i.e.
• Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Polio, Measles, severe form of Childhood Tuberculosis and Hepatitis B, Hiaemophilus influenza type b (Hib) and Diarrhea