Intensified Mission Indradhanush Best Practice in the World: BMJ | 26 Nov 2018

Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) is listed as one of 12 best practices from around the world and will be featured in a special issue of the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

  • The special issue will be brought out on the occasion of the fourth Partners Forum conference organised by the Government of India in New Delhi.

Partners’ Forum is short for the meeting of The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (The Partnership, PMNCH).

  • The Partnership, PMNCH is an alliance of more than 1,000 organisations in 192 countries. The organisations work in the sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health communities, as well as health influencing sectors.
  • The Partnership is governed by a Board, and administered by a Secretariat hosted at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

IMR and MMR data

  • India's infant mortality rate (IMR 2016) is 34 deaths per 1,000 live births.
  • India’s maternal mortality rate (MMR 2016) is 130 per 100,000 live births.

Universal Immunization Programme (UIP)

  • Launched by the government in 1985, UIP prevents mortality and morbidity in children and pregnant women against 12 vaccine preventable diseases.
  • Under UIP free of cost vaccination is provided against twelve vaccine preventable diseases i.e. 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.
  • The programme was the one of largest health programme in the world. Despite being operational for many years, UIP has been able to fully immunize only 65% children under 1 year of age.

Mission Indradhanush

  • To give maximum protection to the children against Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPDs). The government has launched ‘Mission Indradhanush’ in December 2014 to fully immunize more than 89 lakh children who are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated under UIP.
  • The mission was launched in 2014 and targets children under 2 years of age and pregnant women for immunization.
  • Mission Indradhanush provides vaccination against 7 diseases diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B.
  • In addition, vaccination against Japanese Encephalitis and Haemophilus influenzae type B is being provided in selected districts of the country. Vaccination against tetanus is also provided to the pregnant women.
  • Mission Indradhanush aims to increase full immunization coverage in India to at least 90% children by December 2018.
  • No separate funds are allocated for Mission Indradhanush. Funds allocated for Routine Immunization are being utilized by the states to carry out activities under Mission Indradhanush.
  • Mission Indradhanush does not targets to reduce postnatal death rate but targets to reduce diseases and death due to vaccine preventable diseases.
  • Earlier the increase in full immunization coverage was 1% per year which has increased to 6.7% per year through the first two phases of ‘Mission Indradhanush’.

Intensified Mission Indradhanush

  • The Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) has been launched by government of India in 2017 to reach each and every child under two years of age and all those pregnant women who have been left uncovered under the routine immunisation programme.
  • The target under IMI is to increase the full immunization coverage to 90% by December 2018.
  • Under Intensified Mission Indradhanush, greater focus was given on urban areas which was one of the gaps of Mission Indradhanush.
  • These areas have been selected through data available under national surveys, Health Management Information System data and World Health Organization concurrent monitoring data.