SHILLONG: The concluding event of the awareness campaign on mission Indradhanush and RMNCH+A organized by the Directorate of Field Publicity (Regional Office), Government of India, Shillong was held at the PCI Conference Hall, Lower Lachumiere on Monday with H.C. Debnath, DDG (Engineering), AIR, Shillong as the chief guest, M Iboyaima Meitei, Adviser, NEC, Shillong as the Guest of Honour, and R. Murthy, Asstt. Director (News), DDK, Shillong.
Dr. Engam Pame, IIS, Regional Director, DFP, Shillong, in his address said that the main objective of mission Indradhanush and RMNCH+A, which were launched on December 25 2014, is to immunize all children with vaccines against seven preventable diseases such as diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B by 2020.
The universal immunization programme has been operational in India since 1985, and is expected to provide the vaccines to 2.7 children annually. But, despite being operational for the 30 years, only 65% children in India receive all vaccines during their first year of life.
The coverage has increased by only 4% in the last 4 years i.e. at the rate of 1% per year. In view of this grim scenario, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of India launched Mother and Child Health+A and mission Indradhanush as remedial measure which envisions to look after both mother and child, and entrusted DFP to carry out special publicity campaign on Mother & Child Health+A and Mission Indradhanush.
In this regard, the DFP, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura Region launched an intensive publicity campaign starting from September 10, 2015 and concluded in January 2016.
