The Union ministry of women and child development refusing to accept the findings of a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), that shows vaccination coverage fell in some states in 2012-2013, amounts to the government burying its head in the sand. The Indian Express reports that the government is loathe to accept the report because, apart from a shrinkage in vaccine cover in Assam, Maharashtra, Meghalaya and Mizoram, it records one in Gujarat, at a time when prime minister Narendra Modi was its chief minister.
What defies logic is that a government led by a pragmatic PM would try and dodge the report when it actually could be a call to action. Besides, the fall in Gujarat, as compared to the other states where vaccination coverage shrank, was the lowest, almost marginal in absolute terms. The PM has been a strong votary of vaccination as part of the country’s public health programme—in fact, the Modi government made four new vaccines free, including one for rotavirus (diarrhoea), which claims the most number of lives under the age of five years. So, if anything, the Unicef report would help both the union and state governments recognise and remedy the gaps in their vaccination strategies. The costs of being in denial over the matter—a missed chance to rectify the situation—far outweigh whatever fallouts the ministry is anticipating.
