The Mission Indradhanush programme has ensured full immunization of 3.39 crore children and 87.18 lakh pregnant mothers. Further, the annual increase in the rate of immunization has jumped from 1% per year to 6% per year. Continuing this pace, we will ensure full immunization coverage for all the children and pregnant women by 2022.

This promise is worth quoting in full because it contains its own claim of past performance and then extends it: "The Mission Indradhanush programme has ensured full immunization of 3.39 crore children and 87.18 lakh pregnant mothers. Further, the annual increase in the rate of immunization has jumped from 1% per year to 6% per year. Continuing this pace, we will ensure full immunization coverage for all the children and pregnant women by 2022."

The independent measure of routine immunisation in India is the National Family Health Survey, which asks mothers and checks vaccination cards rather than counting doses administered. Its fifth round, fielded 2019 to 2021, reports: "In India, 77 percent of children age 12-23 months received all basic vaccinations at any time before the survey, and 67 percent received all basic vaccinations by age 12 months." The comparison matters: coverage of all basic vaccinations "increased from 62 percent in 2015-16".

Fifteen percentage points in five years is a large gain — larger than between any two earlier rounds of the survey, and consistent with the manifesto's claim that the rate of improvement had accelerated. The supporting data improved too: vaccination cards were available for 86 per cent of children aged 12-23 months, "a large increase from 63 percent in 2015-16", which means the higher figure is not an artefact of better recall.

But the promise was not "improve substantially". It was "full immunization coverage for all the children and pregnant women by 2022". Seventy-seven per cent is not all, and the stricter measure — fully vaccinated by the first birthday, which is what the national schedule requires — stood at 67 per cent. Roughly one child in three was not protected on time.

Coverage is also very uneven. It is "highest in Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu (95%), Odisha (91%), Tamil Nadu (89%), and Himachal Pradesh (89%) and lowest in Nagaland (58%), Meghalaya (64%) and Arunachal Pradesh (65%)." The gap between the best and worst state is 37 percentage points, and the survey adds that coverage rises with household wealth and mother's schooling — 68 per cent for children of mothers with no schooling against 80 per cent for those with twelve or more years.

Two limits on this verdict. The survey's fieldwork ended in April 2021, more than a year before the promised deadline, and NFHS-6 results were not published as of August 2026 — so the last stretch to 2022 is not measured here. And no CAG performance audit of Mission Indradhanush has been tabled, so there is no independent audit of the campaign's delivery.

A large, real improvement, short of the universal coverage promised, and very unequal across states. Our verdict is partly accurate.