Prime Minister Narendra Modi had begun the Mission Indradhanush, on December 25, 2014, months after he came to power with the aim to raise complete vaccination in 201 districts of India, where 50 % of the children were either not vaccinated or incompletely vaccinated.
To carry forward the initiative taken by the Prime Minister, he now plans to launch a phase of it his home state, Gujarat on Oct 8. The initiative will be put to action with an aim to reduce the rate of infant and maternal mortality in Gujarat. According to the sources, Modi has directed the party members of the state to make a list of 100 worst-performing districts in regard to lack of service of vaccination.
Through this exercise, the Modi government is also planning to promote the popularity of Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN), an online real-time vaccine logistics management system developed and implemented by the Ministry of Health and the United Nations Development Programme. This (eVIN), stores all the stock of the vaccines and monitors the temperature of the cold chain through a smartphone application. This application is currently being used by 12 states and Gujarat will be the 13th to use it.
In order to list down the 100 worst-performing districts, Modi also suggested taking the help of different organisations like the National Cadet Corps and Nehru Yuva Kendra. He also added that these organisations can further help in ensuring that no child is left unvaccinated and every one of them gets vaccinated.
As per the experts, the adoption of the practice of immunisation is the best way to prevent death and diseases among the infants and children, This practice is also cost-effective as it helps in saving the medical expenditure done. According to the data provided, in India, around 500,000 children under the age of two die every year because they are not immunised and lack the facility of vaccination.
Gujarat is also one of the states which is below the immunisation rate lower than several other states. Narendra Modi has strongly cleared the target of getting 100% immunisation of all children should be achieved. He even ordered that more officers may be employed to make sure the target is achieved. Modi had also asked the officials to list down the 100 most backward districts and to make sure that there are no gaps in this coverage.
This initiative of the Prime Minister to ensure all the Children are vaccinated and completely immunised, earlier this year he had even made collaboration with the US. In an op-ed on the convergence between India and the US, Modi was successful in nailing down collaborative efforts between the two countries in finding affordable vaccines for rotavirus or dengue.
The Prime Minister will be launching a phase of the Mission Indradhanush on 8 Oct during his two-day visit to his home state. During his visit to Gujarat, the Prime Minister will also attend programmes in Dwarka, Rajkot, Vadnagar (his home town) and Bharuch. As per the sources, the launch of Centre’s immunisation programme ‘Mission Indradhanush’, may be held in Rajkot.