Mission Indradhanush in Detail
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Direct answer
Seven colours gave the mission its name: Mission Indradhanush, launched on 25 December 2014, set out to accelerate full immunisation coverage with the seven then-core Universal Immunisation Programme vaccines — BCG, OPV, DPT, hepatitis B, pentavalent (adding Hib), measles and rubella-tracked vaccines — concentrating on districts where coverage lagged. Its central concepts are the left-out (never vaccinated) and the drop-out (started but incomplete) child, and its method is short, intensive, pre-announced catch-up rounds through urban slums, brick kilns, nomadic camps and other pockets routine sessions miss. Intensified Mission Indradhanush (7 October 2017) raised the ambition to 90 per cent full immunisation on a compressed timeline, with successive phases — IMI 2.0 from December 2019, IMI 3.0 in early 2021 amid COVID-19 recovery, IMI 4.0 in 2022 — each refining targeting; full immunisation coverage rose from 62 per cent (NFHS-4) to about 76 per cent (NFHS-5).
What you must remember
- Dates: launch 25 December 2014; Intensified Mission Indradhanush 7 October 2017 (targeting 90 per cent coverage by end-2018 in focus districts); IMI 2.0 December 2019; IMI 3.0 February-March 2021; IMI 4.0 through 2022.
- The seven of the rainbow: BCG, polio (OPV/IPV), DPT (within pentavalent), hepatitis B (within pentavalent), Hib (pentavalent), measles and rubella — the UIP antigens of the launch era; JE vaccine applies in endemic districts.
- Target groups: children up to two years and pregnant women left out or dropped out; later phases pushed the "zero-dose" child concept into global immunisation vocabulary.
- Method: four rounds of roughly a week each per phase, session-day microplanning, mobilisation by ASHAs, and intensively monitored coverage at identified high-risk sites — construction sites, urban slums, remote tribal hamlets.
- Coverage yardstick: full immunisation of children aged 12-23 months — 62 per cent in NFHS-4 (2015-16), about 76 per cent in NFHS-5 (2019-21).
- Additions riding the platform: accelerated scale-up of new vaccines — rotavirus (2016, phased), pneumococcal conjugate (2017, phased), measles-rubella campaign doses.
- Companion systems: eVIN (Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network) for cold-chain logistics and ANMOL tablets at the periphery are the digital underpinning examiners accept as detail.
How a catch-up round actually works
Picture a phase in a poor-performing district. Cold-chain charts show which villages under-report; a task force lists every brick kiln, railway siding and construction colony in the block; session sites are fixed at unusually fine granularity — a crossroads at 8 am, a hamlet at 11 — because missed populations are missed for reasons of geography and work hours, not vaccine scarcity. ASHAs carry named due-lists from mother-and-child tracking registers, visit homes the previous evening, and accompany families next morning. Monitors verify sampled sessions and count whether fully immunised children — not merely doses given — increased.
That last sentence is the teaching core. Routine immunisation builds immunity through a schedule; Indradhanush builds coverage through a search. The mission accepts that the hard residue — migrants, sceptics, remote hamlets — will not come to sessions, so it takes sessions to them repeatedly, in bursts intense enough to be visible and monitored. When NFHS-5 recorded the jump to roughly three-quarters full immunisation, the programme read it as validation of search-based catch-up layered on a strengthening routine system, not as a substitute for it.
Where students slip
The favourite confusion is UIP versus Mission Indradhanush: the Universal Immunisation Programme (1985) is the delivery system, while Indradhanush (2014) is a periodic intensification that hunts the left-out and drop-out within it — write that sentence and the theory half is secured. Second, the "seven" is a moving target: originally seven vaccines of the launch moment, the UIP has since grown with rotavirus, pneumococcal and other antigens, so the rainbow mnemonic should be dated ("at launch") rather than presented as today's list. Third, know which number you quote — 62 to 76 per cent is full immunisation among 12-23-month-olds across NFHS-4 and NFHS-5, and examiners check the denominator. A polished viva addition: U-WIN now gives the same catch-up effort a beneficiary-tracking spine.
Frequently asked questions
When was Mission Indradhanush launched and why?
Launched on 25 December 2014 to accelerate full immunisation coverage beyond the plateau of the routine programme, targeting children and pregnant women left out or dropped out in low-coverage districts.
What does Intensified Mission Indradhanush add?
Launched on 7 October 2017, it set a 90 per cent full-immunisation target on a compressed timeline with more focused district selection, stricter monitoring and inter-sectoral convergence.
What was full immunisation coverage before and after the missions?
NFHS-4 (2015-16) found about 62 per cent of 12-23-month-old children fully immunised; NFHS-5 (2019-21) found roughly 76 per cent — the yardstick for the mission's effect.
Which populations do the missions specifically hunt?
Urban slums, brick kilns, construction sites, nomadic and migrant settlements, remote tribal hamlets — pockets where the left-out and drop-out children concentrate.
How does Indradhanush relate to the Universal Immunisation Programme?
The UIP is the standing schedule and delivery system; Indradhanush is a periodic, intensive catch-up strategy operating within it to close coverage gaps rather than replace it.