Odisha govt to launch Intensified Mission Indradhanush 5.0

Bhubaneswar: The Intensified Mission Indradhanush drive (IMI 5.0) will be launched from 11 September in Odisha. The drive aims to identify and register all children under the age of 5 years and pregnant women who missed their vaccine doses.

The IMI 5.0 drive will be carried out in three rounds between September and November 2023, with each round spanning six days. The first round will be held from September 11–16, 2023, while the second and third round will be held from October 9–14, 2023, and November 6–11, 2023 respectively. The drive intends to vaccinate 1,04,261 unvaccinated or partly vaccinated children and 19,896 pregnant women in 314 blocks in 30 districts.

Highlighting the objective of the campaign, Dr. Bijaya Kumar Panigrahy, Director of Family Welfare, said, “Odisha is committed to immunize  all under-five children who may have been left out or dropped out of vaccination programmes as our objective is to vaccinate every child.” He further emphasized, “When it comes to children, mothers cannot be ignored. So all pregnant women who have missed their vaccination would also be covered during the campaign.”

According to the NFHS V (2019-21), Odisha has the highest immunization coverage in the country. The full immunization coverage in Odisha has increased from 36.1% (NFHS 1 report, 1992-93) to 90.5% (NFHS 5 Report, 2019-21). This has significantly reduced vaccine-preventable diseases and under-5 mortality in the state.

Addressing to media Dr Sugata Roy, Social & Behaviour Change Specialist, UNICEF, said “Changing behaviour is complex, and therefore, a systematic approach is required to understand factors influencing vaccine resistance. Children and pregnant mothers may miss immunization due lack of knowledge on the benefits of vaccines. We would educate households and mobilize the families for uptake of vaccination.”

Since 2015, ten Mission Indradhanush drives have been successfully conducted in the identified districts of Odisha. This year, IMI 5.0 aims to identify all children under 5 years and the pregnant women who have missed vaccine doses, register them on U-WIN (Digital Platform), and vaccinate them during the specifically scheduled IMI sessions.

The major techniques include field functionary training, head count surveys to enlist left-out / drop-out children under 5 and pregnant women, SC / Block / District micro plan creation, and state / District / Block oversight and monitoring. All districts/MCs have received operational, financial, and communication guidelines for district preparedness.