Maharashtra gets 7 focus districts for child immunisation

The central government has selected seven focus districts from Maharashtra for immunisation of children below two years of age under ‘Mission Indradhanush’. After a survey of all the districts of the country, Union health ministry has identified 201 districts where 50 per cent of the children are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

Previously, the government had identified 10 districts under the programme but now the number has come down to seven districts —Thane, Nanded, Hingoli, Dhule, Jalgaon, Nashik and Churachandpur. Mission Indradhanush was launched across the country in December 2014 to provide a special drive to universal immunisation programme. As per Health Management Information System, till November 2015, full immunisation coverage of the country is 85.7 per cent. And by 2020, the government wants to attain 100 per cent full immunisation of children.

“Within the focus districts, high risk settlements will be identified. There are many pockets where the vaccination ratio is less due to operational challenges. Children living in urban slums, construction sites, brick kilns and tribal areas will be the main focus,” said Dr Satish Pawar, director, health services, Directorate of Health. WHO’s country officer will monitor all these activities. WHO medical officers will scrutinise information regarding the preparedness to priority areas. These data will be submitted on a weekly basis to the Union health ministry.

More than 225 field medical officers, nearly 900 field monitors and more than 1,000 external monitors have been deployed by the WHO. As per the updated partner monitoring mapping, Lead RMNCH+ partners and UNICEF covers all 201 districts, and together have 1,091 staff/consultants for the 1,908 blocks under Mission Indradhanush.