Universal Immunization Programme in India
Published on 13 Feb 2025
Universal Immunization Programme is a vaccination initiative to prevent mortality and morbidity in children and pregnant women against 12 vaccine preventable diseases. To accelerate the coverage, Mission Indradhanush was launched in 2015, making it the largest immunization programme in the world.
Phases of the Immunization programme
✔ Mission Indradhanush: In 2015, to fully immunize more than 89 lakh children who are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated under Universal Immunization Programme.
✔ Intensified Mission Indradhanush: In 2017, to have greater focus on urban areas and to ensure full immunization to more than 90% by 2018.
✔ Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0: In 2019, to target full immunization coverage in 272 districts and to achieve at least 90% pan-India immunization coverage by 2022.
✔ Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0: In 2021, to focus on children and women who missed their vaccine doses during the COVID pandemic.
✔ Intensified Mission Indradhanush 4.0: In 2022, to ensure routine immunization services reach unvaccinated and partially vaccinated children and pregnant women, covering 416 districts.
✔ Intensified Mission Indradhanush 5.0: In 2023, to cover children up to age 5, with special focus on increasing measles and rubella vaccination coverage.
Achievement of the Universal Immunization programme / Mission Indradhanush
Challenges in the functioning of the programme
✔ Vaccine hesitancy: Certain communities have an aversion towards vaccines on cultural grounds. Moreover, misinformation related to health impacts of vaccines creates hesitancy.
● Example: Potraj community along the Western Ghats, is one among the many tribes in India, that has hesitancy towards vaccines.
✔ Inaccessible areas: Lack of proper connectivity has affected vaccination coverage in hilly and forested areas, thus reducing the vaccine penetration.
● Example: To provide vaccination to tribals of the Nanda region, the healthcare workers have to travel 34 km, out of which they trek over hilly terrain for 14 kilometres.
● Example: In Maharashtra, a team of nine officials from Akkalkuwa took around four hours, traveling by boat and in mountainous terrain, to reach the tribal village of Chimalkhedi.
✔ Shortage of healthcare personnel: Rural and tribal areas have shortage of manpower, which offers hindrance in increasing the vaccine coverage.
● Example: There is an 82% shortage of specialists at Community health centres in tribal areas.
✔ Language barrier: Linguistic barrier arises when vaccines are to be provided to migrant people and certain tribal groups. There arises difficulty in convincing the public of the need to have vaccines.
✔ Shortage of funds: Consistent allocation of funds is required to sustain and expand immunization programmes. Outbreak of unforeseen diseases and emergencies divert the resources from vaccination drives.
● Example: The vaccination coverage under Indradhanush was affected when financial and infrastructure resources got engaged with COVID.
How to improve the functioning
✔ Vaccine advocacy: Increasing awareness and trust in vaccines through effective communication strategy, involving community figures, leveraging media etc.
✔ Vaccine management: Proper quality control and cold chain to ensure a steady supply chain and to reduce vaccine wastage.
✔ Vaccine access: Ensure universal and equitable access to vaccination services by improving health infrastructure and deploying adequate workforce.
✔ Vaccine monitoring: Robust surveillance and reporting for timely, proactive response to outbreaks.
Thus, the immunization programme in India has achieved a lot during these years. Investing in healthcare to make them more affordable and accessible, and measures to address vaccine hesitancy could be crucial for the further success of the programme.