1 in 3 parents in India doesn't feel need for child vaccination: Nadda

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 23

One in three parents in the country don’t feel the need to get their child vaccinated and as many as 40 per cent skip life-saving immunisations because of lack of awareness about their benefits or of the location of vaccination camps.

This admission today came from Health Minister JP Nadda after he launched the Centre’s new intensified child immunisation programme “Indradhanush” to raise vaccine coverage from 65 per cent to 90 per cent by 2020.

“Around 40 per cent of the cause for partial or no immunisation can be attributed to lack of parental awareness about vaccinations and around 32 per cent to myths about side effects of vaccines. The creation of awareness among parents is clearly the biggest challenge for immunisation programme,” Nadda said.

Out of 260 lakh children born annually and who must be reached under the current Universal Immunisation Programme, 72 lakh get partially vaccinated for seven life-threatening diseases and 17 lakh are totally unreached. In all, 89 lakh newborns get either partial or no vaccination at all.