Representative image

DEHRADUN: In a move towards boosting the overall immunisation percentage in Uttarakhand , the health department has announced ‘ Vaccination Card ’ to be a mandatory document for getting admission in any government or private school of the state.

As per this policy, any child who wants admission in play school, nursery or kindergarten, will have to provide this document up to his/her actual age. This step, officials said, will enable health department to achieve the goal of Universal Immunisation Programme.

“The ASHAs and ANMs of respective areas will co-ordinate with the schools and collect information about children without vaccination card or incomplete vaccination history and then based on that list, we will be assigning experts to facilitate them,” said Yugal Kishore Pant, director, national health mission programme, Uttarakhand. He added that the aim is to ensure that no child misses out on vaccination.

While the cards will be provided at the local level by health officials of the respective areas, the ones issued by private doctors will also be considered valid. Sources said that this step is being taken after barely 61.3% full immunisation was recorded in children between 9-11 months old in the early part of last year. The overall percentage only slightly improved to 68% later in the year. Insiders from the health department said that districts like Haridwar and US Nagar continue to have sections of people still ‘not convinced’ about vaccinating their kids, marring efforts of the state government to immunise each child.

