States, UTs roll out Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0: All you need to know

The Union ministry of health and family welfare on Tuesday announced several states and Union territories have started the implementation of the Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0 (IMI 3.0) to reach out to children and women who have been missed out or been left out of the Routine Immunisation Programme.

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States roll out Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 3.0

More than 29,000 children and 5,000 pregnant women covered on Day 1https://t.co/gXmXMs0OtK pic.twitter.com/KU120PzGeF

— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) February 23, 2021

State health ministers and chief ministers rolled out the scheme in their respective states on Tuesday after Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan had launched the campaign on February 19, 2021. “As per data reported till 1700 hrs. on 22nd February, nearly 29,000 children and 5,000 pregnant women were vaccinated (data provisional),” the ministry said in a statement.

Here is everything you need to know about the mission:

1. Intensified Indradhanush Mission (IMI) was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 8, 2017, “to reach each and every child up to two years of age and all those pregnant women who have been left uncovered under the routine immunisation programme.” The program was to further intensify the existing Mission Indradhanush, which the government launched in December 2014.

2. Four rounds of immunisation were conducted for seven days in 173 districts (121 districts and 17 cities in 16 states and 52 districts in 8 northeastern states) every month between October 2017 and January 2018, according to the National Health Portal (NHP).

3. The government launched the second version of the mission IMI 2.0 from December 2019-March 2020, “to achieve targets of full immunization coverage in 272 districts in 27 States and at block level (652 blocks) in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar among hard-to-reach and tribal populations.”

4. A total of 735,655 children and 151,894 pregnant women were vaccinated in IMI 2.0 with 447,487 children and 95,577 pregnant women in Uttar Pradesh alone, according to official data.

5. In IMI 3.0, the government has placed a strong emphasis on Covid-19 appropriate behaviour because of the pandemic. “States have been asked to follow "Staggered Approach" to avoid crowding at the session sites and even plan break-up sessions if a staggered approach is not effective to avoid crowding. The sessions are also planned in such a way that not more than 10 beneficiaries are present at the session site at one given point in time,” the health ministry said.