In a bid to ensure mandatory immunisation of children across the state, the Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday launched sending scheduled reminder messages to parents of new born children aged between 0-5 years for immunization/vaccination on mobile phones.Directing the Health & Family Welfare department to accomplish this gigantic task in a mission mode, the Chief Minister said that scheduled message with details of vaccination due and nearest vaccination centre shall be automatically sent to registered mobile numbers of parents. This facility will prove helpful in improving Punjab’s vaccination status.
Talking about the modalities of this facility an official spokesperson said that this automated SMS alerts facility will be available in bilingual language (Punjabi and English). The objective of the facility to sensitize and spread awareness among all the parents (citizen of Punjab) for timely vaccinations of their adolescents, besides monitoring and tracking the entire lifespan of vaccination schedule of children (covering 31 vaccinations).The spokesperson further added that this facility will cover the current year database of more then 4 lacs registered birth and tracking their immunizations for the next 5 years (the entire vaccination lifespan).
He informed that the initiative is being developed by the Department of Governance Reforms under the aegis of Government of Punjab.“This facility is integrated with the database (e-Sewa) of Registered Births in the State of Punjab” said the spokesperson.Notably, vaccination reminder services in several countries have been effective in increasing compliance by 20%. There are many scientific studies showed the effectiveness of vaccination reminders.During this launch ceremony ACS to CM A. Venu Prasad, Principal Secretary Governance Reforms Tejveer Singh, Secretary Health Ajoy Sharma and Director Governance Reforms Girish Dayalan were also present.