President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind launched the Pulse Polio Programme for 2021 on January 30, 2021 by administering polio drops to children less than five years old at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
- The President and the First Lady administered polio drops to children on the eve of the Polio National Immunization Day, which is observed on the 31st January 2021 (Sunday), also popularly known as Polio Ravivar.
- Around 17 crore children of less than 5 years of age will be given polio drops as part of the drive of Government of India to sustain polio free status of the country.
- The strategy of Pulse Polio Immunization Programme was conceived in December 1993 and it was rolled out from 2nd October, 1994 when the first child was immunized against Polio as part of this programme.
- Before the start of the program, India had 60% caseload of Polio worldwide. With the last case of Polio reported in Howrah on 13th January, 2011, the country has been free of Polio for a decade now.
- Polio-free certification’ of the entire South-East Asia Region of WHO including India was given on the 27th of March 2014.
