The government has launched the Pulse Polio Programme 2019. Under the programme, polio drops would be administered to children less than five years of age.

• It is conducted every year aims to protect children from the polio disease by conducting two nationwide mass polio vaccination campaigns and two to three sub-national campaigns each year. It aimed at sustaining the polio eradication from the country. India was declared polio-free country in the year 2014.
• India’s last reported cases of wild polio were in West Bengal and Gujarat on 13 January 2011.

Further to provide additional protection to children Government has also introduced the injectable Inactivated Polio Vaccine into its routine immunization program.

Polio also known as poliomyelitis is a highly contagious viral disease caused due to the attacks the nervous system and children younger than 5 years old are more likely to contract the virus than any other group.