Lakshmi Devi, 28, is a mother of a two-year old son, Rahul. She is very much contended with the healthcare facility at her village Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh.
For Lakshmi and her son, the immunisation program by the government has added life to motherhood. She doesn’t have to struggle for the vaccination for her son as she gets it now at her door step.
Like Lakshmi, there are thousands of pregnant and lactating mothers and infants who are availing healthcare benefits from Central government’s unique vaccination program called Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN).
With a vision of 100 percent immunisation coverage for infants in Madhya Pradesh (MP), the union health ministry has started its one of a kind immunisation program in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
With this, the immunisation coverage in the state has reached upto 75 percent this year.
In the first phase, government started eVIN in Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, MP, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
India records more than 26 million newborns and 30 million pregnant women each year, translating into more than 30 million doses of vaccine each year.
Dr Pallavi Govil, State Health Commissioner said, “eVIN ensures equity through easy and timely availability of vaccines to all children and pregnant mothers. In Madhya Pradesh, there are total four regional vaccine stores, three divisional stores, 51 district vaccine stores and 1,126 cold chain points (CCPs) in which 95 per cent are below the district level.”
With the success of eVIN, the government now plans to start eVIN system in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telagana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
“Since we get the real time data of storage temperature of vaccines, we have noticed about Rs 7.3 crore reductions in vaccine wastage,” Dr Santosh Shukla, Deputy Director, State immunisation Officer said.
“Each cold chain handler is handed over a smart phone with the eVIN app It can be easily be viewed by programme managers at district, state and national level through online dashboard. We can also get real time information of vaccine stocks and storage temperature of the vaccines and incase of any technical program, we get email and SMS alerts which is rectified at earliest,” he said.
It is estimated that within a span of two years, health ministry plans to cover entire country under the ambit of eVIN immunisation progamme.
