How to Get Your Child Vaccinated Under Mission Indradhanush: Session Sites, U-WIN and Due Doses

How to Get Your Child Vaccinated Under Mission Indradhanush: Session Sites, U-WIN and Due Doses

There is no application form for Mission Indradhanush: you simply take the child or the pregnant woman to the announced session site on the round date, and the due vaccines are given free, with or without documents. The nearest thing to an "application" is getting the beneficiary registered on U-WIN, which the vaccinator can do on the spot in a couple of minutes. For what the campaign is, which vaccines it covers and who qualifies, read the Mission Indradhanush guide; this article deals only with the practical steps of getting the doses into the arm.

Step 1: Find out whether a round is running in your area

Mission Indradhanush runs as intensive rounds of several days in selected districts, blocks, urban slums, migrant settlements and hard-to-reach areas, on top of the routine weekly sessions. Three reliable ways to find the dates:

• Ask your ASHA, ANM or anganwadi worker. They hold the house-to-house head count, the due list and the session microplan for your village or ward, and they know which day the site near you operates.
• Ask at the sub-centre, health and wellness centre or urban primary health centre. The Medical Officer in charge has the block microplan.
• Watch the gram panchayat or district health office announcement. Round dates are publicised locally before each round.

If no round is scheduled where you live, do not wait. Routine Universal Immunization Programme sessions run every week throughout the year, usually on the Village Health, Sanitation and Nutrition Day, and the same due doses are given there free.

Step 2: Work out which doses are actually due

Mission Indradhanush gives only the doses the child has already missed. It adds no new vaccine and no extra entitlement, so a child whose schedule is complete for their age has nothing to claim.

• Open the Mother and Child Protection (MCP) card and look at the last entry and the next due date.
• Or check the record on U-WIN, the government's digital immunisation registry, if the child is already registered.
• If you have no record at all, that is fine. Take the child anyway and the vaccinator will assess the age and start a fresh record.

The age range matters. From Intensified Mission Indradhanush 5.0 onwards the campaign covers children up to 5 years; earlier rounds covered children up to 2 years. Pregnant women who have not completed their tetanus-diphtheria (Td) doses are covered in every round.

Step 3: Take whatever papers you have, and go anyway

Nothing on this list is mandatory:

The operating rule under the campaign is that no child or pregnant woman is turned away for lack of documents. A child who has migrated from another state is vaccinated wherever they are found. If a health worker asks you to come back with paperwork, ask for the Medical Officer.

Step 4: Go to the session site on the round date

Session sites are usually the sub-centre, the health and wellness centre, the anganwadi centre, an urban primary health centre, or a temporary outreach post set up for the round in a slum, brick kiln or construction site. Go early in the day; sites work to a fixed session plan.

Step 5: Get registered on U-WIN

If the child or mother is not already on U-WIN, the vaccinator generates a beneficiary ID at the site. This is worth doing even though it is optional, for three reasons: the record cannot be lost with a torn card, due-date reminders come automatically, and a child who moves to another city can be vaccinated at any session site there because the record travels with the ID. U-WIN holds the vaccination record for pregnant women and children from birth to 17 years under the Universal Immunization Programme.

Step 6: Receive the doses and wait 30 minutes

The due vaccines are given free of cost. Stay at the site for about 30 minutes as the vaccinator advises, so that any immediate reaction can be handled on the spot. Mild fever or soreness after a dose is expected; tell the vaccinator about any past reaction before the injection so vaccination can be deferred if there is a genuine contraindication.

Step 7: Collect the updated record and note the next due date

Before leaving, make sure the MCP card is updated or the digital certificate is generated, and write down the date of the next due dose. Then return for every remaining dose until the schedule is complete. A partially immunised child gets only partial protection, and dropping out midway is exactly the gap Mission Indradhanush exists to close.

If you missed the round entirely

Take the child to the nearest government health facility on any working day. Routine sessions continue all year and the missed doses will be given there at no cost. You do not have to wait for the next campaign round.

Where to ask for help

• ASHA, ANM or anganwadi worker for session dates and due doses.
• Medical Officer in charge of the nearest primary or community health centre.
• 104, the state health helpline in most states.
• 1075, the National Health Helpline of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Every vaccine, card entry and certificate under Mission Indradhanush and the Universal Immunization Programme is free at government facilities. Pay no one for any of it, and treat anyone offering cash for attending as a fraud, because the campaign carries no cash benefit at all.