Mission Indradhanush

What is Mission Indradhanush?

Mission Indradhanush is a catch-up immunisation campaign of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, launched in December 2014. According to the National Health Mission, Mission Indradhanush was launched with the objective of achieving 90% full immunisation coverage, and it targets children and pregnant women in areas where routine immunisation has been weakest.

The name comes from the rainbow - the original seven vaccines the campaign set out to deliver. Mission Indradhanush is described by the Ministry as "a special catch-up vaccination campaign under the Universal Immunization Programme, conducted in areas of low immunization coverage to vaccinate left out and dropped out children and pregnant women."

Key objectives

• Reach children who have received no vaccine at all ("zero-dose" children).
• Complete the schedule for children who started but dropped out part way.
• Vaccinate pregnant women who missed their tetanus-diphtheria doses.
• Close the gap in districts, urban slums, migrant settlements and hard-to-reach areas where routine sessions do not reach.

Main features

• Entirely free - no fee, no registration charge, no document requirement.
• Runs as intensive rounds of several days, repeated over consecutive months, in addition to routine sessions.
• Uses the same vaccines and the same National Immunization Schedule as the routine programme.
• Backed by house-to-house head counts and microplans prepared by ASHAs, ANMs and anganwadi workers.

How is Mission Indradhanush different from the Universal Immunization Programme?

This is the single most common confusion, so it is worth being precise:

• The Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) is India's routine, year-round immunisation service. It runs fixed and outreach sessions every week - typically the Village Health, Sanitation and Nutrition Day - at sub-centres, health and wellness centres, anganwadis and hospitals. Every child in India is meant to be immunised through UIP.
• Mission Indradhanush is a time-bound catch-up drive within UIP. It runs only in selected low-coverage districts and blocks, only for a defined number of rounds, and only for beneficiaries the routine service has already missed.

Mission Indradhanush introduces no new vaccine and no additional entitlement. It delivers the same doses that were already due. If your child's vaccinations are up to date under routine UIP, there is nothing further to claim under Mission Indradhanush.

Which vaccines are given?

According to the National Health Mission, the Universal Immunization Programme - and therefore Mission Indradhanush - provides free vaccination against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases:

• Nationally, against 9 diseases: diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, polio, measles, rubella, severe childhood tuberculosis, hepatitis B, and meningitis and pneumonia caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b.
• Sub-nationally, against 3 diseases: rotavirus diarrhoea, pneumococcal pneumonia, and Japanese encephalitis in endemic districts.

The Ministry states that 11 types of vaccines used in the Universal Immunization Programme are provided under Mission Indradhanush. Inactivated Polio Vaccine was rolled out from November 2015 and nationwide by April 2016; rotavirus vaccine was introduced in March 2016 in 11 states and later expanded nationally; measles-rubella vaccine was rolled out from 2017; pneumococcal conjugate vaccine was launched in May 2017; and the tetanus-adult diphtheria (Td) vaccine replaced the earlier TT vaccine for adolescents and pregnant women.

What have the phases achieved?

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 12 phases of Mission Indradhanush had been held up to 2023, vaccinating 5.46 crore children and 1.32 crore pregnant women across 765 districts.

The National Health Mission records that the first six phases covered 554 districts, and that the intensified phases produced an 18.5 percentage point increase in full immunisation coverage in the areas where they ran.

Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 5.0 marked two changes, according to a Press Information Bureau release: for the first time the campaign ran across all districts in the country, and it covered children up to 5 years of age, where earlier campaigns had covered children up to 2 years. IMI 5.0 concluded all three rounds on 14 October 2023, with a special focus on measles and rubella vaccination coverage.

According to a Press Information Bureau update, full immunisation coverage rose from 62% in 2015 to 98.4% in January 2026, and the share of zero-dose children in the total population fell from 0.11% in 2023 to 0.06% in 2024.

Who is eligible for Mission Indradhanush?

Your child or you can be vaccinated if:

• The child is left out - has received no vaccine dose at all.
• The child is dropped out - started the schedule but missed subsequent doses.
• The child is within the campaign's age range, which is up to 5 years in IMI 5.0 and later rounds, and was up to 2 years in earlier phases.
• You are a pregnant woman who has not completed the tetanus-diphtheria (Td) doses due in pregnancy.
• You live in a district, block, urban slum, migrant settlement or hard-to-reach area selected for the current round.

There is no income test, no caste requirement, no residence proof requirement and no document requirement. A child who has migrated from another state is vaccinated at the session site where they are found.

You are not eligible or need not attend if:

• Your child's vaccinations are already complete for their age under routine UIP - there are no extra doses to be given, and repeating a completed schedule is not eligible under the campaign.
• Your child is above the age range for the current round, in which case they are covered by routine UIP sessions and any age-specific campaign instead.
• Your area is not included in the current round's microplan - in that case attend the routine weekly immunisation session at your sub-centre or anganwadi, which continues throughout the year.
• The child has a specific medical contraindication identified by the vaccinator, in which case vaccination is deferred, not cancelled.

Mission Indradhanush pays no cash benefit of any kind. Anyone offering money in exchange for attending, or demanding money for a vaccine, is running a fraud.

What documents are required?

The operating rule is simple: no child or pregnant woman is turned away for lack of documents. If no record exists, the vaccinator records a fresh entry.

How to apply for Mission Indradhanush vaccination

1. Ask your ASHA, ANM or anganwadi worker for the date and location of the next immunisation session. They hold the due list and the session microplan for your village or ward.
2. Check which doses are due for your child on the MCP card, or on the U-WIN portal or app if the child is registered.
3. Go to the session site on the announced date - usually a sub-centre, health and wellness centre, anganwadi centre, urban primary health centre or a temporary outreach site.
4. Get the child registered at the site if they are not already on U-WIN. The vaccinator generates a beneficiary ID on the spot.
5. Receive the due vaccines free of charge, and wait at the site for 30 minutes as the vaccinator will advise, so that any immediate reaction can be handled.
6. Collect the updated MCP card or digital certificate and note the date of the next due dose.
7. Return for every subsequent due dose until the schedule is complete - a partially immunised child gets partial protection.

If you missed a Mission Indradhanush round entirely, take the child to the nearest government health facility on any working day. Routine UIP sessions run throughout the year and the due doses will be given there.

What is U-WIN?

U-WIN is the Government of India's digital immunisation registry. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, U-WIN provides a fully digitised vaccination record for pregnant women and children from birth to 17 years under the Universal Immunization Programme, with citizen-centric services allowing "anytime access" and "anywhere" vaccination and flexible scheduling.

For a family, U-WIN means three practical things: the vaccination record cannot be lost with a torn card, due-date reminders are sent automatically, and a child who moves to another city can be vaccinated at any session site there because the record travels with the beneficiary ID.

Help and grievance redressal

• Your ASHA, ANM or anganwadi worker - the first point of contact for session dates and due doses.
• Medical Officer in charge of the nearest primary or community health centre.
• 104 - the state health helpline operating in most states.
• 1075 - the National Health Helpline of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• nhm.gov.in for the immunisation programme pages and the Intensified Mission Indradhanush operational guidelines.

All vaccines under Mission Indradhanush and the Universal Immunization Programme are free at government facilities. No payment should be made to any health worker for a vaccine, a card entry or a certificate.