1. SUBMITTED TO HARYANA INNOVATION COUNCIL
Policy for timely immunization (vaccination) using
auto-sms technology
Youth Ingenuity Appreciation Awards
By-
ABHISHEK AGARWAL
B-TECH
IIT KHARAGPUR

2. Introduction: In Haryana, from year 2001 to 2011 around 33.1% children did not turn up
for Tetanus Vaccination and hence were not immunized from the Tetanus. In the same
period 11% of the children were not immunized from BCG. Of the targeted children for
DPT Vaccination, only 78% children were immunized in 2008-09 (181093 out of
230000). Currently India contributes to about 25% of the world’s infant death, 70% of
this figure could be broad down if timely vaccinations are supplemented. The necessary
of such a service stems from the fact that people in urban areas are busy and occupied
and while the one’s in rural areas are not timely informed. About 2 million children below
the age of 5 dies, one every 15 seconds.
On an optimistic point, we should note that in India 65 thousands babies are born daily
and more than 840+ million users have access of mobile phones. Here we have a very
good communication channel to them. Why not we communicate various vaccination
instructions to them via this channel? We can also provide general health care
messages and essential tips on infant care. A need for health care is substantial and can
be expanded to other areas of health care sector like pregnancy alerts pet health care
alerts and other regions. The main goal is that we want at least the basic health care tips
and information to reach the people and would try to fill the information gap. In addition
to this, we can also add various other services, which will increase the usefulness of this
project and will help in fixing the primary health care problems up to a great extent.
General idea about the service: This service will be a free vaccination and health care
alert system, to provide basic health care alerts and vaccination reminders to patient via
SMS/Emails/Automated-Calls in various languages which includes vernacular languages
so that parents don’t miss their baby’s vaccination deadlines and help them to nurture
their baby well. Its language versatility helps it to overcome the vernacular barriers.
Anyone with a mobile phone could register with us. Just one SMS does it all. In
contemporary world, all we strive to do is help strike a healthy & better future & everyone
benefit from a healthy ambience. In Urban areas Nuclear families is the emerging trend,
remembering a child’s vaccination date might quite often skip our minds, this is where
we come to remind the important dates. In the rural sector people are unaware of
vaccination and this program raises awareness. Also this program doesn’t stop at
vaccination alerts; it also provides essential healthcare tips. For instances many of us
don’t know what an ORS is. ORS is an easy to prepare solution of water, salt & sugar
which is the simplest solution of diarrhoea. But, alas! Lack of such knowledge has been
causing several infant deaths in our country. This is where we saw a light to come in with
this idea.
Procedure for setting it up (for government): Government will start a portal (website)
which on receiving a request for registration via SMS/Email/Website registration will
automatically allot an unique ID for the child with his/her details like Date of Birth, Blood
group, Locality etc. Now we need to feed the time intervals of various vaccines from the
Date of birth (say hepatitis B1 after two months of the birth etc.) and parents will receive
automatic SMS reminders according to the expected date of vaccination. If resources
permit, this service can be improved and may be utilized even to cure malnutrition, infant

3. mortality rate etc. (procedure for which has been mentioned in the point wise add-on
services which are mentioned in the document later)
Process for the registration: Registration of the child in the above mentioned portal
can be initiated by three ways which are as:
1. Parents can register with the expected date of birth of the child. It will also autosubscribe them to the SMS service for the tips for the better health of the mother during
pregnancy. This SMS would have option for changing the date of birth in later stage. If
the child’s name is XYZ and expected DOB is 00.00.0000, one just needs to send the
simple SMS like “XYZ 00000000” to some number easy to remember say 67777.
2. Hospital can also register the child in the portal at the time of delivery via Website or
simple SMS just like mentioned above. It will also include the mobile number to which
parents expect the SMS for various instructions.
3. If the birth has already taken place but the child is not registered, parents will have an
option of registration with back date i.e. Date of birth which has already passed. After
this registration process, an automatic SMS for the confirmation will be sent and an
email also will be sent if provided by parents.
This process of registration is very simple and user friendly. It can be demonstrated to
the parents by Auxiliary nurses midwifes (ANM) in their respective blocks. Also in case
of any trouble and discrepancies a free help line will be started.

4. Flow Chart for the proposed service:
SMS Received
and Child is
registered
Schedule of
Various Vaccine
generated
Reminders are
sent to parents
Child turned up
Child is
immunised
Child
Did Not
come
Rigorous Follow up
through Auto-calls/SMS
Reminders
Whole Haryana is
immunized. Same way
malnourishment, eye sight
problems can also come to
en end.

5. Allied Services which can be added: This is the basic idea of our program. This
program can also be utilized for other services which may eventually help government in
monitoring nutrition level, eye-sight, and various other birth diseases. That means it will
ultimately strengthen the whole primary health care sector and the health index of the
state will increase significantly. Some of the services which can be added to this service
are:
1. If the state has enough resources to get the feedback data from various government
and private hospitals, it can be fed in the original database and details of the children
who did not turn up for vaccination can be filtered and these people can be contacted
separately. In addition to this there will be lots of benefits like tracking of the people who
did not turn for vaccination and sending them special reminder with details of back-up
vaccination camp. These children will get a reminder SMS (may be also with the
automated calls in the voice of celebrities to motivate people for vaccination). So this
way, a very great number of immunizations can be reached.
2. If government has the database of the parents, it can also organise multipurpose
health camps where specific deficiencies of the child can be traced and to cure it,
medicines and other instructions can be conveyed to them. Also these instructions may
be sent to the parents on regular intervals as it is human nature to follow the suit for 2-3
days and forget it. This can be a very strong tool to hit the birth related diseases and
Malnutrition.
3. If the facility of the registration of the child is given for pre-pregnancy also (with
expected date of birth), then Government can also send specific instructions related to
mother and child care. It will also promote institutional delivery, which in turn will be very
useful in reducing the maternal mortality rate (MMR) of the Haryana.
4. If resources support, it is also advisable to government to establish a call centre for
the above purpose where parents can contact concerned authorities and get the
necessary details about various vaccines, vaccination camps, and problems related to
registration
of
the
child
etc.
Conclusion: In the contemporary world, where each and every person can be easily
reached by government, it seems little indigestible that there are some deaths due to
non-immunization. Immunisation is the cost effective early intervention for disease
prevention.
Immunisation
Services
are
available
in
the
state
of
Haryana, but utilization of these services is the big hurdle in low coverage of
immunisation. So we have brought an idea by which these problems can be easily
solved. With this idea we can do so much more and put smiles on many children’s
faces!! At least governmental machinery can make its people informed, let it be on the
hand of people whether they want to continue with bad state of their health or they want
to get rid of these things and make their life happier by acquiring better health conditions
and live a happier life.
[Disclaimer: Data in this report is authentic. Copy of original source will be produced, if
asked]