Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0 Scheme | 24 Feb 2021

Why in News

Recently, the Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 3.0 scheme has been rolled out to cover children and pregnant women who missed routine immunisation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Key Points

• About the Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 3.0 Scheme:
  
  • Objective:
    
    • To reach the unreached population with all the available vaccines under Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) and thereby accelerate the full immunization and complete immunization coverage of children and pregnant women.
  • Coverage:
    
    • It will have two rounds this year which will be conducted in 250 pre-identified districts/urban areas across 29 States/UTs.
      
      • The districts have been classified to reflect 313 low risk, 152 medium risk and 250 high risk districts.
    • Beneficiaries from migration areas and remote areas would be targeted as they may have missed their vaccine doses during the pandemic.
  • Significance: It will foster India’s march towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
• Universal Immunization Programme:
  
  • Launch:
    
    • The Immunization Programme in India was introduced in 1978 as ‘Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
    • In 1985, the Programme was modified as ‘Universal Immunization Programme (UIP)’.
  • Objectives of the Programme:
    
    • Rapidly increasing immunization coverage,
    • Improving the quality of services,
    • Establishing a reliable cold chain system to the health facility level,
    • Introducing a district-wise system for monitoring of performance, and
    • Achieving self-sufficiency in vaccine production.
  • Analysis:
    
    • UIP prevents mortality and morbidity in children and pregnant women against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases. But in the past, it was seen that the increase in immunization coverage had slowed down and it increased at the rate of 1% per year between 2009 and 2013.
    • To accelerate the coverage, Mission Indradhanush was envisaged and implemented since 2015 to rapidly increase the full immunization coverage to 90%.
• Mission Indradhanush:
  
  • Objective:
    
    • To fully immunize more than 89 lakh children who are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated under UIP.
    • Targets children under 2 years of age and pregnant women for immunization.
  • Diseases Covered:
    
    • Provides vaccination against 12 Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (VPD) i.e. diphtheria, Whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, meningitis and pneumonia, Haemophilus influenzae type B infections, Japanese encephalitis (JE), rotavirus vaccine, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and measles-rubella (MR).
    • However, Vaccination against Japanese Encephalitis and Haemophilus influenzae type B is being provided in selected districts of the country.
• Intensified Mission Indradhanush 1.0:
  
  • Launch:
    
    • It was launched in October 2017.
  • Coverage:
    
    • Under IMI, greater focus was given on urban areas which were one of the gaps of Mission Indradhanush.
    • It focused to improve immunisation coverage in select districts and cities to ensure full immunisation to more than 90% by December 2018 instead of 2020.
• Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0:
  
  • Launch:
    
    • It was a nationwide immunisation drive to mark the 25 years of Pulse polio programme (2019-20).
  • Coverage:
    
    • It had targets of full immunization coverage in 272 districts spread over 27 States.
    • It aimed to achieve at least 90% pan-India immunisation coverage by 2022.

Source:TH