After a decline in the number of children who have not yet received routine immunization from 2000 to 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic led to a renewed increase. Against this backdrop, Gavi and the Government of India are once again intensifying their collaboration to provide life-saving vaccinations to millions of children in India.
To achieve this goal, Gavi is providing $250 million to reduce the number of children in India who have not received routine immunization by 30% by 2026. The partnership aims to identify and vaccinate those children. Initially, 143 districts have been identified across the country where targeted interventions will be deployed with the support of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs) to ensure initial immunization, as well as to strengthen the demand for vaccines and to ensure a better understanding of the importance of vaccination in the target community. The lessons learned will be transferred to nationwide immunization programs to strengthen routine immunization in general.
Past collaborations have already accelerated the introduction of key vaccines such as the Hepatitis-B vaccine. Thus, the new partnership is expected to help introduce the typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) and the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine into the national routine immunization schedule.
