On February 07, 2022, the Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya launched Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 4.0 in New Delhi to protect children and pregnant women from severe diseases.
- While launching IMI 4.0, the Health Minister stated that India operates the largest immunization program globally, covering over 30 million pregnant women and 26 million children every year under the Universal Immunization Program (UIP).
Key Points:
i.The IMI 4.0 will give impetus to the vaccination coverage. As of now the immunization coverage among children have increased to 76.4 percent as per National Family Health Survey(NFHS)-4.
ii.The IMI 4.0 will cover 416 districts across 33 states/UTs. It will focus more on those districts where the vaccination coverage is comparatively low.
iii.2 Phases: The mission will be run in two phases, the 1st phase will be run in 11 states from February to April, 2022 and the second phase will be held from April to May, 2022.
- In the first round (Feb-April 2022), 11 states will conduct IMI 4.0. These are Assam, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura and Chhattisgarh. The others (22 states/UTs) will conduct the rounds from April to May 2022. These states/UTs include Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Puducherry, Delhi, Punjab, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Jharkhand, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
iv.Under the IMI 4.0, 12 vaccines will be administered to the children.
v.Participants: Keshab Mahanta, Health Minister of Assam and Rushikesh Patel, Health Minister of Gujarat also virtually participated in the launch.
vi.The Union Health Minister virtually launched the IMI 4.0 portal and released the “Operational Guidelines for IMI 4.0”, “Strengthening Immunization in Urban Areas-A framework for Action” and a handbook for “Mahila Arogya Samiti on Urban Immunization” and awareness material/IEC package developed as part of the campaign.
Note – Three rounds of IMI 4.0 have been planned to catch up on the gaps that might have emerged due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Considering the recent upsurge of COVID-19 cases, states have been given the flexibility of carrying out the activity either from February 2022- April 2022 or from March to May 2022. The first round will start from 7th February 2022 onwards, the second will be from 7th March 2022, and the third round will be from 4th April 2022.
About UIP:
i.Immunization Programme was introduced in India in 1978 as ‘Expanded Programme of Immunization’ (EPI) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
ii.In 1985, the programme was modified as UIP to be implemented in phased manner to cover all districts in the country by 1989-90 with the one of largest health programme in the world.
iii.What is Immunization?
It is the process whereby a person is made immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically by the administration of a vaccine. Vaccines are substances that stimulate the body’s own immune system to protect the person against subsequent infection or disease.
About Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI):
i.To strengthen and re-energize the UIP programme, and achieve full immunization coverage for all children and pregnant women at a rapid pace, the Government of India launched ‘Mission Indradhanush (MI)’ in December 2014.
- Mission Indradhanush was also identified as one of the flagship schemes under Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (16,850 villages across 541 districts) and Extended Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (48,929 villages across 112 aspirational districts).
ii.Objective: To ensure full immunization with all available vaccines for children up to 2 years of age and pregnant women.
iii.To further intensify the immunization programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the IMI on October 8, 2017 to reach child and pregnant women who have been left uncovered under the UIP.
iv.To boost the routine immunization coverage in the country, Government of India has introduced IMI 2.0 from to ensure reaching the unreached with all available vaccines from December 2019-March 2020.
v.IMI 3.0 scheme has been launched in February 2021 to cover children and pregnant women who missed routine immunisation during the COVID-19.
