The state faces a daunting task as it enters mission mode to ensure that over four lakh children in Maharashtra who have never been immunised are brought under the umbrella of vaccination. On Tuesday, the state health department announced the roll-out of a four month-long vaccination programme aimed at covering all children between the age group of 0 to 5 years, to ensure that they have received their vaccination doses on time.
The state faces a daunting task as it enters mission mode to ensure that over four lakh children in Maharashtra who have never been immunised are brought under the umbrella of vaccination. On Tuesday, the state health department announced the roll-out of a four month-long vaccination programme aimed at covering all children between the age group of 0 to 5 years, to ensure that they have received their vaccination doses on time.
Maharashtra has a population of eleven crore, of which 12% or 13 lakh are children between the age of 0 – 5 years. "Up to 33% of this population is not immunised against diseases like diptheria, tetanus, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B amongst others," said Dr Archana Patil, the state's Joint Director (Health Services).
The state is focussing on ten districts in Maharashtra where the immunisation rate is less than 55%. In Thane, Palghar, Nashik, Nandurbar, Dhule, Jalgaon, Nanded, Beed, Hingoli and Gadchiroli districts, the situation pertaining to child healthcare is bleak with barely 55% of all children being immunised. "The migrant tribal population in these districts is very high. We have been unsuccessful in achieving high immunisation rates in these districts, and so we are launching week-long immunisation programmes here for the next four months to identify missed cases," said Dr Patil.
Neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have covered as many as 90% of their children under immunisation programmes. In India, in a shameful state of affairs, less than 70% children are immunised. In Maharashtra only up to 66% children have been immunised against deadly diseases. "In Nandurbar and Gadchiroli, less than 50-55 percent children are vaccinated," said Dr Patil.
Maharashtra's health minister Deepak Sawant said, "We have to strive hard to achieve our targets. We have to go up to the grassroots to ensure that every child gets the right to live a healthy life."
The central government has allotted a yearly budget of Rs23 crores to the state to facilitate its immunisation programme.
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