How India hit 95% measles vaccine coverage: The inside story

4 min readUpdated: Jul 17, 2026 02:57 PM IST

Despite the high coverage of the measles vaccines, however, India reported 18,774 cases of the infection in 2025.(Representational Photo)

India has made remarkable progress when it comes to vaccinating children against measles, with the coverage of one dose hitting 98 per cent and both doses 95 per cent. Despite the huge population denominator — meaning even a small percentage can translate into thousands of children missing a dose — 2025 became the first-year India was not on the list of countries with the highest number of unvaccinated children, “underscoring outstanding progress over the last decade,” according to the recently released report by WHO/UNICEF on national immunisation.

There were 4.53 lakh children in India who missed their measles vaccine in 2025. To compare, Nigeria topped the list of countries that had lowest measles vaccine coverage with 56% of its children — around 32 lakh — not having received the first dose.

Significantly, India has shot past its pre-pandemic level of measles immunisation, while the world is still trying to catch up. India’s coverage of measles vaccine stood at 95% for a single dose and 84% for both the doses in 2019. Meanwhile, globally, the report says: “Measles vaccination with at least one dose is also struggling to regain its 2019 level. There are still 18 lakh more children unvaccinated for measles than in 2019.”

Despite the high coverage of the measles vaccines, however, India reported 18,774 cases of the infection in 2025. “To understand this, we need to know about measles. While measles and Covid-19 are both air-borne infections, Covid-19 had a R0 (a tag which shows how contagious a disease can be) of 3 to 4 and measles has a R0 of 12 to 16. This means one person infected with Covid-19 can spread it to three to four others, while a person with measles can spread it to 12 or 16 others. Measles can spread very fast, so even if there are a small number of people who have not been vaccinated, the infection can spread,” says Dr Pradeep Haldar, former head of the government’s immunisation programme.

Although WHO says that countries need to maintain immunisation levels above 90% to ensure the infection does not spread, sometimes this may not be enough. “A high coverage is needed for measles vaccine because even if 100% of the people receive it, 15% would not sero-convert and get the protection. A second dose increases this number but there would still be some who would remain unprotected. In addition, the over 95% coverage is a national figure, there might be pockets where the immunisation levels may be slightly lower,” says Dr Haldar.

The data also showed that there were at least 6.79 lakh children in India who did not receive a single dose of any vaccine. While the number reduced by 2.3 lakh over the previous year, efforts have to be made to reach the last mile. “This is the most difficult to reach population. This would likely include those who strongly refuse vaccines and migratory families,” says Dr Haldar.

Again, this number has reduced for India from the pre-pandemic level, but the world is trying to catch up. Data shows that there are 1.35 crore children who remain unimmunised in the world — 6.74 lakh more than the number of children who remained unimmunised in 2019.

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Behind 95% measles vaccine coverage

“This has become possible because of decades of efforts that have been put into immunisation. Not only does the programme data show this, the trend is also evident in the NFHS-6 data. While India did slide back a little during the pandemic, we pulled ourselves back quickly. Even during the second year of the pandemic when there were restrictions on travel, we ensured that children could be brought to the health centres for immunisation,” explains Dr Haldar.

According to him, strategies to communicate with those who refuse vaccines, ways to keep the migratory population in the vaccination network, consistent availability of vaccines and vaccinators have together contributed to this success.

Anonna Dutt is a Principal Correspondent who writes primarily on health at the Indian Express. She reports on myriad topics ranging from the growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension to the problems with pervasive infectious conditions. She reported on the government’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic and closely followed the vaccination programme.

Her stories have resulted in the city government investing in high-end tests for the poor and acknowledging errors in their official reports.

Dutt also takes a keen interest in the country’s space programme and has written on key missions like Chandrayaan 2 and 3, Aditya L1, and Gaganyaan.

She was among the first batch of eleven media fellows with RBM Partnership to End Malaria. She was also selected to participate in the short-term programme on early childhood reporting at Columbia University’s Dart Centre. Dutt has a Bachelor’s Degree from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune and a PG Diploma from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. She started her reporting career with the Hindustan Times.

When not at work, she tries to appease the Duolingo owl with her French skills and sometimes takes to the dance floor. ... Read More

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