National Vaccination Day 2025: History, Significance And Vaccination Schedule In India – News18
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National Vaccination Day, on March 16 in India, marks the 1995 Pulse Polio Immunisation launch, raising awareness about vaccination and honouring healthcare workers.
National Vaccination Day is celebrated annually on March 16. (Image: Shutterstock)
National Vaccination Day 2025: Vaccination is the key process for building resistance against any disease in the body through a vaccine. It stimulates the body’s immune system to protect against subsequent infection or disease and prevent it from further growing or hampering the cells. However, a major section of society is still not aware about the importance of vaccination. So, to make people aware, the Government of India observes March 16 as National Vaccination Day.
National Vaccination Day: History
The day is observed annually to commemorate the successful launch of the Pulse Polio Immunization Programme in India. It was in 1995 when the first dose of oral polio vaccination was administered in India on the same date.
Since then, the day has been observed in honour of the government’s Pulse Polio Programme, which managed to eradicate polio from the country. For those unaware, on March 27, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) proclaimed India polio-free.
National Vaccination Day Significance
To acknowledge and appreciate the hard work of frontline healthcare workers and to ensure the vaccination of every child, March 16 has been celebrated as National Vaccination Day every year. The goal is to save individuals from vaccine-preventable diseases like Tuberculosis, chicken pox, flu, influenza, HPV and more.
Besides this, National Vaccination Day also aims at:
- Addressing myths and misconceptions about various vaccines.
- Strengthening the government’s initiatives to irradicate vaccine-preventable diseases.
- Raising awareness among the unprivileged or remote sections of society about the government schemes and the importance of vaccines.
- And promoting commitment to timely vaccination.
Vaccination Schedule in India
But what is the vaccination schedule in India?
When a vaccine is taken once, it becomes important to adhere to the vaccination schedules. This helps in practicing cost-effective child survival interventions. The vaccines are designed for babies, children, and adults as per the intake capability of the body.
The schedules outline the certain time frames and number of doses for various types of vaccines, which ultimately ensure the optimal protective shield against diseases. Additionally, the vaccines are also tailored according to many specific health conditions.
For instance, according to the official National Immunization schedule, for babies which are a few months or weeks older, vaccines such as the following are used as per these doses:
Vitamin A: 1 ml dose at 9 months, along with measles and rubella vaccine.
DPT booster: 1: 0.5 ml dose when the child is 16–24 months.
Measles/MR 2nd dose: 0.5 ml dose when the child turns 16–24 months.
BCG, Hep B1, OPV: At birth, 10 weeks, 14 weeks, 6 months, and 7 months.
Following this, according to a report by the National Health Mission on behalf of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (GOI), for children who are in their tweens or teens, here is the vaccination schedule:
MMR: The vaccine should be given thrice at 9–12 months, 15–18 months, and 4–6 years.
DPT: 2nd booster dose at 5 years of age.
Oral Polio Vaccine: 6th dose at 15–18 months and 7th dose at age 5 years.
TT: 3rd booster dose at 10 years of age.
Hepatitis B: A booster dose is given at 10 years.
Coming to adults, the vaccines include:
Influenza: Annual dose for people aged between 19 and 26 years.
Tdap or Td: 1 dose of Tdap during each pregnancy and 1 dose of Td/Tdap for wound management.
A few other vaccines have been developed in recent years to combat the latest kinds of diseases. One amongst them was the Covishield, which was taken during the COVID-19 pandemic to fight against the deadliest viruses.
