Making an effort to free the nation from diseases, the Government is making great efforts to carry out immunization programmes like Universal Immunization Programme (UIP), one of the world's largest public health programmes, which targets 3 cr pregnant women and 2.7 crore new borns annually, officials from the Health ministry said.
Under UIP, about 90 lakh immunization sessions are being conducted annually. It is one of the most cost-effective public health interventions and is largely responsible for the reduction of vaccine preventable under-5 mortality rate, official data shows.
Some new initiatives under UIP include Mission Indradhanush which was launched in Dec 2014, a targeted programme to immunize children who have either not received vaccines or are partially vaccinated. The activity focuses on districts with maximum number of missed children. Four phases of Mission Indradhanush have been completed wherein 3.38 crores children have been vaccinated, of which 81.67 lakh children have been fully immunised.