Mission Indradhanush 2014
The purpose was to vaccinate children up to two years of age and pregnant women. Absolutely identical to its name Indradhanush – the 7 colours of the rainbow, Union Health Minister J. P. Nadda launched Vaccination for 7 Life-threatening diseases Poliomyelitis, Hepatitis B, Diphtheria, Measles, Meningitis, Tetanus, Tuberculosis, and Whooping cough.
In addition to these Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Haemophilus Influenzae type-B (Hib) were also covered in selected states identified by the government.
Later in the year 2016, 4 more vaccines got added to the mission Rubella, Japanese Encephalitis, Injectable Polio Vaccine Bivalent, and Rotavirus.
1. The campaign was launched to fully immunize:
– Unvaccinated (left out) or children who did not take the vaccine for some reason
– Partially Vaccinated (Dropout) or those who could not complete all the doses
– Who was not covered (Missed out) because their area was not reached
2. In 2014 it covered 528 districts in 35 states and Union Territories. Where the main focus was on 201 districts in 28 states, which had the maximum population of unimmunised or partially immunised children. Hence, within a year it achieved 6.7% immunisation coverage in 2015.
3. Until August 2017 more than 2.53 crore children and 68 lakh pregnant women got vaccinated.
One important thing to remember is that Mission Indradhanush is different from Abhiyaan Indradhanush. Later is an initiative to make ESIC (Employees’ State Insurance Corporation) hospitals more colourful, clean, and hygienic. In Abhiyan Indradhanush, the hospital bedsheets ‘colour’ is kept as per the VIBGYOR pattern on different days of the week.
Mission Indradhanush Immunisation Programme
With the aim of expanding immunization coverage to all children across India by the year 2020, on 25th December 2014, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched Mission Indradhanush. It was formed to expand the ongoing Immunization Programme which started in the year 1978 as the ‘Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI)’.
Although the Immunization program(EPI) was modified in 1985 under the ‘Universal Immunization Programme’ (UIP). However, the sluggish progress between the 2009 and 2013 time period triggered the need for another program targeted to achieve at least 90% coverage of India by 2020. And since then, five improved versions of the programmes have been launched. Let us look at the efficacy rate of each one of them:
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