Mission Indradhanush was launched by Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare (MOHFW) on 25th December, 2014. The health ministry’s
flagship programme, which provided immunisation against seven life threatening
diseases, is all set to be renamed as four new vaccines have been introduced to
fight against various life threatening diseases.
Mission Indradhanush, signifies the spectrum of seven colours
of the rainbow, which provides vaccination against seven vaccine-preventable
diseases including diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis,
measles and Hepatitis B.
"We have added four new vaccinations - rotavirus,
measles rubella, inactivated polio vaccine biavalent and Japanese Encephalitis
for adults. In that, very important is rotavirus. 10 lakh children get
hospitalised every year suffering from diarrhoea and 80,000 lose their lives
every year," said Health Minister JP Nadda. The four added vaccines
had been made a part of the ‘India Newborn’ action plan in January this year.
With an aim to fight against various vaccine preventable
diseases and to reach out to the unvaccinated and partially vaccinated children
by 2020, the project has additionally brought 1.62 crore children under the
ambit of immunization within a year of its launch. India had been facing the
problem of low immunization coverage since many years as period between
2009-2013 saw just 1 per cent increase in coverage year-on-year.
"Mission Indradhanush has brought change in the lives of
people. We have to keep some other name in place of Indradhanush as the
vaccinations have gone up from seven to eleven," added the Union Health
Minister.
However regardless of the name, the project has shown
improvements in immunization coverage and with the added new four vaccines, a
new set of unvaccinated and partially
vaccinated children will be brought under the scope of Immunization.
