Last month a report by UNICEF had estimated that India has the second highest number of “zero dose” children in the world
The government Tuesday informed the Rajya Sabha that for the 2023-24 financial year the childhood immunisation cover stood at 93.5%. States like Delhi, Maharashtra and Telangana were reported to have over 100% immunisation cover.
“Under the Universal immunization program, all eligible children up to the age of 2 years are administered vaccination doses as per the immunization schedule. Mission Indradhanush (MI) and Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI), are special catch-up campaigns conducted at regular intervals to ensure vaccination of the left out and dropped-out children and pregnant women in the areas of low immunization coverage, minister of state for health Prataprao Jadhav told the Upper House in a written reply.
“The Government of India encourages States/UTs to have model Immunization centers. Immunization camps are also conducted in the states as per the requirements. The model Immunization centers are already operational in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and in the Union Territories of Chandigarh and Ladakh,” he added.
A recent report by UNICEF had estimated that India has the second highest number of zero dose children in the world, second only to Nigeria. The World Health Organisation defines zero dose children as those that have not received any routine immunisation services. The government of India had said that these estimates give an incomplete picture of the country’s immunization data, as they do not factor in the population base and immunization coverage of the countries compared.
“The country’s Universal Immunization Programme is the largest public health initiative, targeting a massive cohort of 2.6 crore children and 2.9 crore pregnant women annually through 1.2 crore vaccination sessions. The Full Immunization Coverage for FY 2023-24 stands at 93.23% nationally. With consistent efforts to reach and vaccinate all eligible children against vaccine preventable diseases, the country has been able to achieve a noteworthy reduction in the Under-5 Mortality Rate (U5MR) declining from 45 per 1000 live births in 2014 to 32 per 1000 live births (SRS 2020). In addition, India has widened the basket of vaccines with the introduction of six new vaccines under the UIP to increase breadth of protection since 2014,” the ministry of health and family welfare had said last month in a statement.
