Effectiveness of Muskaan Ek Abhiyan (The Smile Campaign) for Strengthening Routine Immunization in Bihar, India.
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Date
2012-02
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Abstract
Background: In Bihar State, proportion of fully immunized
children was only 19% in Coverage Evaluation Survey of
2005. In October 2007, a special campaign called
Muskaan Ek Abhiyan (The Smile Campaign) was
launched under National Rural Health Mission to give a
fillip to the immunization program.
Objectives: To evaluate improvement in the performance
and coverage of the Routine Immunization Program
consequent to the launch of Muskaan Ek Abhiyan
Intervention: The main strategies of the Muskaan
campaign were reviewing and strengthening immunization
micro-plans, enhanced inter-sectoral coordination
between the Departments of Health, and Women and
Child Development, increased involvement of women
groups in awareness generation, enhanced political
commitment and budgetary support, strengthening of
monitoring and supervision mechanisms, and provision of
performance based incentive to service providers.
Methods: Immunization Coverage Evaluation Surveys
conducted in various states of India during 2005 and 2009
were used for evaluation of the effect of Muskaan
campaign by measuring the increase in immunization
coverage in Bihar in comparison to other Empowered
Action Group (EAG) states using the difference-indifference
method. Interviews of the key stakeholders
were also done to substantiate the findings.
Results: The proportion of fully immunized 12-23 month
old children in Bihar has increased significantly from 19%
in 2005 to 49% in 2009. The coverage of BCG also
increased significantly from 52.8% to 82.3%, DPT-3 from
36.5 to 59.3%, OPV-3 from 27.1% to 61.6% and measles
from 28.4 to 58.2%. In comparison to other states, the
coverage of fully immunized children increased
significantly from 16 to 26% in Bihar.
Conclusions: There was a marked improvement in
immunization coverage after the launch of the Campaign
in Bihar. Therefore, best practices of the Campaign may
be replicated in other areas where full immunization
coverage is low.
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Keywords
Evaluation, Immunization, India, Performance-based incentives, Intersectoral coordination
Citation
Goel Sonu, Dogra Vishal, Gupta Satish Kumar, Lakshmi P V M, Varkey Sherin, Pradhan Narottam, Krishna Gopal, Kumar Rajesh. Effectiveness of Muskaan Ek Abhiyan (The Smile Campaign) for Strengthening Routine Immunization in Bihar, India. Indian Pediatrics. 2012 February; 49(2): 103-108.