Mission Indradhanush

Mission Indradhanush was launched by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) Government of India on 25th December, 2014. The objective of this mission is to ensure that all children under the age of two years as well as pregnant women are fully immunized with seven vaccine preventable diseases.

The Mission Indradhanush, depicting seven colours of the rainbow, targets to immunize all children against seven vaccine preventable diseases, namely:

1. Diphtheria
2. Pertussis (Whooping Cough)
3. Tetanus
4. Tuberculosis
5. Polio
6. Hepatitis B
7. Measles.

In addition to this, vaccines for Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Haemophilus influenzae type B (HIB) are also being provided in selected states.

First Phase of Mission Indradhanush:

For the first phase, 201 high focus districts across 28 states in the country that have the peak number of partially immunized and unimmunized children were identified by the Government.

There were total four rounds in the first phase of the mission. The first round of the first phase was started from 7th April, 2015 and continued for more than a week.

Further, second, third and fourth rounds were held for more than a week in the month of May, June and July starting from 7th of each month. The first phase of this mission was very successful.

The main highlights of the first phase of Mission Indradhanush are as given below:

•   Total 9.4 lakh sessions were organized during these four rounds of Mission Indradhanush
•   About 2 crore vaccines were given to the children as well as pregnant women.
•   Tetanus Toxoid vaccine was given to more than 20 lakh pregnant women
•  75.5 lakh children were vaccinated and about 20 lakh children were fully vaccinated.  
•   More than 57 lakh zinc tablets and 16 lakh ORS packets were freely distributed to all the children to protect them against diarrhoea.

Second Phase of Mission Indradhanush

The second Phase of Mission Indradhanush has been started from 7th October, 2015. The second, third and fourth rounds of this phase will start from 7th November, 7th December 2015 and 7th January 2016. 

The aim is to achieve full immunization in 352 districts which includes 279 mid priority districts, 33 districts from the North East states and 40 districts from phase one where huge number of missed out children were detected.