Mission Indradhanush

What is Mission Indradhanush

Government of India has launched Mission Indradhanush on 25 December, 2014 as a special nationwide initiative to vaccinate all unvaccinated and partially vaccinated children under the Universal Immunisation Programme and sustain it by health system strengthening by 2020.

Focus of mission:

The mission focuses on interventions to expand full immunisation coverage in India from 65 per cent in 2014 to at least 90 per cent children in the next five years. This will be done through special catch-up campaigns to rapidly increase full immunisation coverage of children by 5 per cent and more annually.

The programme provides immunisation against seven life-threatening diseases (diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B) in the entire country. In addition, vaccination against Heamophilus influenza type B and Japanese Encephalitis is provided in select districts/states.

Areas under focus

The first phase of mission started from April 7 2015, also celebrated as World Health Day.

•For the first phase, 201 districts were identified with the highest number of partially vaccinated and unvaccinated children. These are termed as the high focus districts. Nearly 50 per cent of all unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children are found in these 201 districts.

•82 districts of these are concentrated in the four states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and nearly 25 per cent of the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children of India are in these districts.

•These districts were targeted for intensive efforts to improve the routine immunisation coverage in the country. The ultimate goal is to protect all children and pregnant women against vaccine preventable diseases in India.

•In the second phase, 352 districts have been selected including 279 mid priority districts, 33 from the North East states (from phase one where activity was postponed) and 40 districts from phase one where large number of missed out children were detected.

•The second phase commenced from 7th October, 2015.

Within the districts, the Mission will focus on the 400,000 high risk settlements identified by the polio eradication programme. These are the pockets with low coverage due to geographic, demographic, ethnic and other operational challenges. Evidence has shown that most of the unvaccinated and partially vaccinated children are concentrated in these areas.

The following areas will be targeted through special immunisation campaigns:

•High risk areas identified by the polio eradication programme. These include populations living in areas such as:

1.Urban slums with migration

2.Nomads

3.Brick kilns

4.Construction sites

5.Other migrants (fisherman villages, riverine areas with shifting populations etc.) and

6.Underserved and hard to reach populations (forested and tribal populations etc.)

•Areas with low routine immunization (RI) coverage (pockets with Measles /vaccine preventable disease (VPD) outbreaks).

•Areas with vacant sub-centers: No ANM posted for more than three months.

•Areas with missed Routine Immunisation (RI) sessions: ANMs on long leave and similar reasons.

•Small villages, hamlets, dhanis or purbas clubbed with another village for RI sessions and not having independent RI sessions.

Achievements till now

The special focus on the strategising, planning, implementation and monitoring of the execution process has ensured that Mission Indradhanush is one of the largest full immunization programs of the world, covering more than 75.5 lakh children and more than 20 lakh pregnant women through TT vaccine. More than 20 lakh children were fully immunized against seven vaccine preventable diseases. During the four rounds, about 9.4 lakh sessions were held during which about 2 crore vaccines were administered.

Apart from vaccines, Mission Indradhanush has expanded the basket of services through provisioning of ORS packets and Zinc tablets. More than 16 lakh ORS packets and about 57 lakh Zinc tablets have been distributed.

Strategy for mission

It is designed to be a national immunisation drive to strengthen the key functional areas of immunization for ensuring high coverage throughout the country with special attention to districts with low immunisation coverage.

The broad strategy, based on evidence and best practices, includes four basic elements-

1.Meticulous planning of campaigns/ sessions at all levels: Ensure revision of micro plans in all blocks and urban areas in each district to ensure availability of sufficient vaccinators and all vaccines during routine immunisation sessions. Develop special plans to reach the unreached children in more than 400,000 high risk settlements such as urban slums, construction sites, brick kilns, nomadic sites and hard-to-reach areas.

2.Effective communication and social mobilisation efforts: Generate awareness and demand for immunisation services through need-based communication strategies and social mobilisation activities to enhance participation of the community in the routine immunisation programme through mass media, mid media, interpersonal communication (IPC), school and youth networks and corporates.

3.Intensive training of the health officials and frontline workers: Build the capacity of health officials and workers in routine immunization activities for quality immunisation services.

4.Establish accountability framework through task forces: Enhance involvement and accountability/ownership of the district administrative and health machinery by strengthening the district task forces for immunisation in all districts of India and ensuring the use of concurrent session monitoring data to plug the gaps in implementation on a real time basis.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is working in collaboration with other Ministries, ongoing programmes and international partners to promote a coordinated and synergistic approach to improve routine immunisation coverage in the country.

Source:pib.in