Mission Indradhanush

Why is in news? Update on Mission Indradhanush

Mission Indradhanush (MI) is a special catch-up campaign under the Universal Immunization Program (UIP), conducted in the areas of low immunization coverage to vaccinate all the children and pregnant women left out or dropped out from Routine Immunization.

Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 4.0 was conducted in 416 high-focus districts across India in 2022.

As per Health Management Information System 2022-23, 06 States/UTs have achieved 100% Full Immunization Coverage (FIC) whereas 17 States have achieved FIC of more than 90%.

Under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW).

Aim:

To expand immunization coverage to all children across India. It aims to cover all those children who are either unvaccinated, or are partially vaccinated against vaccine preventable diseases.

Children across socio-economic, cultural and geographical spectrums in India are being immunized under this program.

Also the pregnant women are administered the tetanus vaccine, ORS packets and zinc tablets are distributed for use in the event of severe diarrhea or dehydration and vitamin A doses are administered to boost child immunity.

Universal Immunization Programme (UIP):

India’s Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) provides free vaccines against 12 life threatening diseases.

It 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 diarrhea. (Rubella, JE and Rotavirus vaccine in select states and districts)

Phases:

Phase I was started as a weeklong special intensified immunization drive in 2015 in 201 high focus districts for four consecutive months.

The Phase II of Mission Indradhanush covered 352 districts in the country of which 279 are medium focus districts and remaining 73 are high focus districts of Phase-I.

Phase III of Mission Indradhanush was launched from 7 April 2016 covering 216 districts.

Phase IV of Mission Indradhanush was launched from 7 February 2017 covering the North-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. It was rolled out in the rest of the country during April 2017.

Around 97 lakh pregnant women have also been immunized under the Mission.