In news– The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched the Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 4.0 recently.
In news– The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched the Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 4.0 recently.
About Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 4.0-
- It will ensure that Routine Immunization (RI) services reach the unvaccinated and partially vaccinated children and pregnant women.
- It will have three rounds and will be conducted in 416 districts (including 75 districts identified for Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav) across 33 States/UTs in the country.
- These districts have been identified based on vaccination coverage as per the latest National Family Health Survey-5 report, Health Management Information System (HMIS) data and burden of vaccine preventable diseases.
- In the first round (Feb-April 2022), 11 states will conduct IMI 4.0. – Assam, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura and Chhattisgarh.
- The others (22 states) will conduct the rounds from April to May 2022.
- During the same event, the Health Ministry also launched the IMI 4.0 portal.
About Intensified Mission Indradhanush & its other phases-
- It was launched by the Government of India to reach each and every child under two years of age and all those pregnant women who have been left uncovered under the routine immunization programme.
- The special drive focused on improving immunization coverage in select districts and cities to ensure full immunization to more than 90% by December 2018.
IMI2.0-
- It was launched to ensure reaching the unreached with all available vaccines and accelerate the coverage of children and pregnant women in the identified districts and blocks from December 2019-March 2020.
- It aimed to achieve targets of full immunization coverage in 272 districts in 27 States and at the block level (652 blocks) in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar among hard-to-reach and tribal populations.
IMI 3.0-
- It was conducted in two rounds and covered 250 districts or urban areas across the 29 States or Union Territories.
- It aimed to provide immunization to pregnant women and children free of cost in India.
- This mission also aimed to reach the unreached population.
About Mission Indradhanush-
The Immunization Programme in India was introduced in 1978 as the ‘Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. In 1985, the programme was modified as the ‘Universal Immunization Programme’ (UIP) to be implemented in a phased manner to cover all districts in the country by 1989-90 with the one of the largest health programmes in the world. To strengthen and re-energize the programme and achieve full immunization coverage for all children and pregnant women at a rapid pace, the Government of India launched “Mission Indradhanush” in December 2014.
- It aims to cover all those children who are either unvaccinated, or are partially vaccinated against vaccine preventable diseases.
- Under Mission Indradhanush, all vaccines under Universal Immunization Program (UIP) are provided as per National Immunization Schedule.
- It was also identified as one of the flagship schemes under Gram Swaraj Abhiyan and Extended Gram Swaraj Abhiyan.
Diseases covered under India’s Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP)
- The UIP provides free vaccines against 12 life-threatening diseases, to 26 million children annually.
- The Universal Immunization Programme 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 diarrhoea. (Rubella, JE and Rotavirus vaccine in select states and districts).
Phases under the Indradhanush Mission
- Phase I was started as a weeklong special intensified immunization drive from 7th April 2015 in 201 high focus districts for four consecutive months.
- Phase II of Mission Indradhanush covered 352 districts in the country of which 279 are medium focus districts and the 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 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.
