Three million children in India missed DPT dose in 2020 because of pandemic: Unicef

Three million children in India missed DPT dose in 2020 because of pandemic: Unicef

Subject: Governance

Context: The Covid pandemic left India’s immunisation programme in tatters, with an estimated three million children not having received the first dose of the DPT vaccine in 2020, according to Unicef

Immunization Programme in India:

• Immunization Programme in India was introduced in 1978 as ‘Expanded Programme of Immunization’
• In 1985, the programme was modified as ‘Universal Immunization Programme’ (UIP) to be implemented in phased manner to cover all districts in the country by 1989-90 with the one of largest health programme in the world
• UIP has been able to fully immunize only 65% children in the first year of their life.

Mission Indradhanush

• To strengthen and re-energize the programme and achieve full immunization coverage for all children and pregnant women at a rapid pace Mission Indradhanush”was launched in December 2014
• The ultimate goal of Mission Indradhanush is to ensure full immunization with all available vaccines for children up to two years of age and pregnant women.
• India’s Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) provide free vaccines against 12 life threatening diseases, to 26 million children annually.
• The Universal Immunization Programme provides life-saving vaccines to all children across the country free of cost to protect them against Tuberculosis, Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Polio, Hepatitis B, Pneumonia and Meningitis due to Haemophilus Influenzae type b (Hib), Measles, Rubella, Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Rotavirus diarrhoea. (Rubella, JE and Rotavirus vaccine in select states and districts)

Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI)

• To further intensify the immunization programme Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI)on October 8, 2017
• It aims to reach each and every child up to two years of age and all those pregnant women who have been left uncovered under the routine immunisation programme/UIP
• The focus of special drive was to improve immunisation coverage in select districts and cities to ensure full immunisation to more than 90% by December 2018.

Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 2.0

To boost the routine immunization coverage in the country, Government has introduced Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0 to ensure reaching the unreached with all available vaccines and accelerate the coverage of children and pregnant women in the identified districts and blocks from December 2019-March 2020