The Health Ministry has refuted the claims of the UNICEF’s report, which states that India has the second highest number of children who did not receive vaccination in 2023. The report stated that India has around 16 Lakh, “Zero Dose Children.” However, refuting their claims, the health ministry pointed out many flaws in their report. One being, that the UNICEF’s report did not factor in the population base. Secondly, it also pointed out that a flawed comparison has been made without considering India’s high vaccination coverage.
Health Ministry Rebuts UNICEF’s Report…
The ministry pointed out that India’s population which larger than that of other countries has not been taken into account while making the report. It states that this fact, was also not considered while comparing children’s vaccination with 19 other countries. The Union Health Ministry sources stated, “Even though India has the second highest (number of) zero-dose children in the world, it accounts for 0.11% of the country’s total population.”
Apart from this, the ministry points out the following facts-
- WUENIC data shows that India’s rank improved from 2021, when the country had recorded the highest number of zero-dose children globally at 27.3 lakh.
- Then, India’s antigen-wise coverage is better than that of the world average for all antigens for 2023.
- With respect to, DPT 1 (Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis Vaccine)- India’s proxy for zero dose is 93% whereas the global average is 89%. Thus, in this case, India is 4% better off than the rest of the world.
- India’s DPT3, proxy for under-vaccinated, is 91% whereas the global average is 84%. So, India is 7% better than the world.
- Then, India’s MCV1 (Measles zero dose) is 92% whereas the global average is 83%. Indicating that India is 10% better off than the rest of the world.
- India coverage for Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV), is 83% which is much higher than the global average of 65%.
Overall,
The ministry highlighted that in case of DPT 1, the coverage is not only above 90% but the dropout children are also just 2%. This gap between the first and the third dose is wider in case of other countries. It stated that all this is a result of the various pragmatic interventions of the government. In fact, India’s universal immunisation programme (UIP) is the largest public health initiative in the world. The country’s full immunisation coverage, currently stands at 93.23%.
Furthermore, India has made a significant progress in reducing Under-5 Mortality Rate (U5MR). It has declined from 45 per 1000 live births in 2014 to 32 per 1000 live births (SRS 2020). Apart from UIP, consistent efforts have been made under the Mission Indradhanush to reach out to the unvaccinated children. Since 2014, 12 phases of Mission Indradhanush have been launched, wherein, 5.46 crore children and 1.32 crore pregnant women have been vaccinated. As a result of all such efforts, the number of zero dose children have reduced by 34% between 2014-2023.
It is also noteworthy point, that India offers the maximum number of WHO-recommended vaccinations under the UIP as compared to most of the other countries. India’ mean coverage is 83.4 pc, which is 10 percentage point, higher than the global average. Besides, this, since 2011, India has effectively maintained 13 years of polio-free status due to high levels of OPV and IPV coverage.