Poliomyelitis, or polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. It spreads mainly through contaminated water, food, and hands, and mostly affects children under five. In a small share of infections the virus attacks the nerves of the spinal cord and causes sudden, lifelong paralysis, usually of the legs. There is no cure, but vaccines prevent it.

When did India start vaccinating children against polio?

Oral polio vaccine was used in some Indian cities in the 1960s and 1970s, but routine national vaccination began with the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) launched in 1978, which offered BCG, DPT, oral polio vaccine, and typhoid vaccines through health centres.

What is the Universal Immunization Programme?

The Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) was launched on 19 November 1985 to expand EPI to every district of India, add the measles vaccine, and strengthen the cold chain. It was rolled out in phases and reached all districts by about 1990. Today it provides free vaccines against a dozen diseases to all children and pregnant women.

Pulse Polio is India’s mass polio campaign launched on 9 December 1995. On a single day, every child under five is given two drops of oral polio vaccine at booths, whether or not they have been vaccinated before, followed by house-to-house visits to find children who were missed. Giving the vaccine to all children at once helps stop the virus from spreading.

What does “Do Boond Zindagi Ki” mean?

“Do Boond Zindagi Ki” means “two drops of life” in Hindi. It was the famous slogan of the Pulse Polio campaign, used on radio, television, posters, and wall paintings to remind parents to bring their children for two drops of oral polio vaccine in every round.

Why were children’s fingers marked with ink?

After a child received polio drops, the vaccinator marked the nail of the left little finger with indelible ink. This let house-to-house teams quickly see which children had been vaccinated, while chalk marks on house doors showed which homes had been visited and whether any child had been missed.

When was India’s last polio case?

India’s last case of wild poliovirus was an 18-month-old girl in Howrah district, West Bengal, who developed paralysis on 13 January 2011. As recently as 2009, India had reported 741 cases, the highest number in the world.

When was India declared polio-free?

After a full year without a case, the World Health Organization removed India from the list of polio-endemic countries on 24 February 2012. After three years without any wild polio case, India and the other ten countries of WHO’s South-East Asia Region were certified polio-free on 27 March 2014.

What is the difference between OPV and IPV?

OPV (oral polio vaccine) is given as drops in the mouth, is cheap and easy to give in mass campaigns, and also builds immunity in the gut, which stops the virus from spreading. IPV (inactivated polio vaccine) is given as an injection and cannot cause vaccine-derived polio. India added IPV to routine immunisation in 2015 and now uses both.

Why does India still give polio drops?

Wild poliovirus still circulates in a few countries, mainly Pakistan and Afghanistan, and can be carried across borders by travellers. India therefore keeps giving polio vaccines in routine immunisation, holds national and sub-national Pulse Polio rounds, tests sewage for the virus, vaccinates children at border crossings, and requires polio vaccination for travellers from affected countries.

Health Timeline

Polio Eradication Timeline of India: Endemic Disease → EPI → Universal Immunization → Pulse Polio → Polio-Free → Certified

For decades polio left thousands of Indian children every year with weak or paralysed legs, and calipers and crutches were a common sight. India began routine vaccination in 1978, spread it to every district from 1985, and in 1995 launched Pulse Polio — two drops for every child under five on a single day. After years of house-to-house visits, transit teams, and huge setbacks, India recorded its last case in January 2011 and was certified polio-free in 2014.

This timeline covers the Salk and Sabin vaccines, the Expanded Programme on Immunization, the Universal Immunization Programme, the cold chain, Pulse Polio and “Do Boond Zindagi Ki”, polio surveillance, finger and house marking, transit and mobile teams, the 2002 and 2009 outbreaks, the last case in Howrah, WHO certification, IPV, the 2016 vaccine switch, and how India stays polio-free.

1978 EPI → 1985 Universal Immunization 1995 Pulse Polio → 2011 Last Case 2012 Polio-Free → 2014 Certified

Why the Story of Polio Eradication Matters

Many experts once believed India would be the last place on Earth to get rid of polio, because of its huge population, crowded cities, poor sanitation, and constant migration. Its success showed that a well-organised public health campaign — millions of health workers, volunteers, scientists, and parents working together — can defeat a disease even in the hardest conditions, and the same network now helps with other vaccines.

Big picture

India’s fight against polio in one view

Polio was endemic across India until the 1970s. Routine vaccination began with EPI in 1978, the Universal Immunization Programme reached every district by about 1990, Pulse Polio campaigns from 1995 vaccinated every child under five again and again, and the last wild polio case was recorded in 2011, leading to WHO certification in 2014. Related timelines: television, railways, research in India.

1995

First Pulse Polio round

741

Cases in 2009, the world’s highest

2011

Last wild polio case (Howrah)

2014

Certified polio-free by WHO

Split image with a sepia 1970s rural clinic where a nurse in a white sari gives a baby an injection with a glass syringe beside glass bottles and a metal trunk on the left, and a smiling health worker in a blue apron giving oral polio drops to a toddler held by his mother at a modern booth with a blue cold box on the right — From glass syringes in a village clinic to two drops at a Pulse Polio booth (artistic illustration).

Polio in India Then vs Now at a Glance

Feature	Then (1970s)	Now
Disease	Common in every state	No wild polio case since January 2011
Vaccine	Few children vaccinated	Free oral drops and injections for every child
Where vaccinated	Hospitals in towns	Booths, homes, trains, bus stands, and borders
Vaccine storage	Ice in metal boxes	Cold chain, vial monitors, and digital stock tracking
Records	Paper cards, often lost	Mother and child protection cards and digital records
Tracking cases	Few cases reported	Every case of sudden weakness tested in a lab
Awareness	Word of mouth	Radio, TV, film stars, and religious leaders
Workers	Doctors and nurses in clinics	Lakhs of vaccinators, ASHAs, anganwadi workers, and volunteers
Children paralysed	Thousands every year	No new wild polio paralysis
Status	Polio-endemic country	Certified polio-free since 2014

🦽 EndemicBefore 1978

Polio Everywhere: Calipers & Crutches

Before routine vaccination, the poliovirus spread freely through contaminated water and hands in crowded towns and villages. Most infected children had only a mild fever, but some woke up unable to move a leg, and families turned to hospitals, physiotherapy, calipers, and crutches. Vaccines existed abroad but reached very few Indian children.

Sepia 1960s children’s hospital ward with tall shuttered windows and ceiling fans where a nurse in a white uniform and cap helps a young boy wearing metal leg calipers walk between wooden parallel bars, while other children rest on iron beds with wooden crutches leaning nearby — A nurse helps a boy with leg calipers learn to walk again (artistic illustration).

1908–1955: Scientists identify the poliovirus (1908), and the injected inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) developed by Jonas Salk is licensed in the United States in 1955.
Early 1960s: Albert Sabin’s oral polio vaccine (OPV) — cheap drops that need no needle and also protect the gut — comes into use and is soon tried in a few Indian cities.
1960s–1970s: Polio is common in every Indian state, and hospitals and rehabilitation centres treat children with paralysed legs using physiotherapy, calipers, crutches, and surgery.
1974: The World Health Assembly launches the global Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) to protect children against six diseases, including polio.

Technology

Salk vaccine: Injected, killed virus.
Sabin vaccine: Oral drops, weakened virus.
Calipers: Metal leg supports.

Features

No routine vaccination: Few children protected.
Monsoon outbreaks: Cases rise in wet months.
Lifelong disability: No cure for paralysis.

💉 EPI1978 – 1984

Expanded Programme on Immunization

In 1978 India started its first national programme of routine childhood vaccination. Health centres began offering a set of free vaccines, including oral polio drops, but coverage stayed low, especially in villages, because vaccines lost their strength without proper refrigeration and many parents had never heard of them.

Late-1970s Indian village scene with a male health worker in a khaki shirt and a nurse in a white sari sitting on a wooden bench under a neem tree beside a whitewashed dispensary, opening a metal vaccine carrier packed with ice, while mothers in bright saris wait in a line holding babies, with bicycles and a bullock cart behind — Health workers open an ice-packed vaccine carrier for waiting mothers (artistic illustration).

1978: India launches the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), offering BCG, DPT, oral polio vaccine, and typhoid vaccine to infants and young children, mainly through hospitals and health centres.
Late 1970s–early 1980s: Coverage stays low in rural areas, and many doses lose their strength because the vaccine must be kept cold from the factory to the child.
1983: India’s first National Health Policy sets goals for universal immunisation of children.
Early 1980s: Surveys of lameness in schools and villages show that polio is still paralysing a very large number of Indian children every year.

Technology

Vaccine carriers: Boxes packed with ice.
Refrigerators: Only at bigger centres.
Paper cards: Dose records.

Features

Fixed clinics: Parents had to travel.
Free vaccines: A basic set.
Low coverage: Many villages missed.

🏥 UIP1985 – 1994

Universal Immunization Programme

The Universal Immunization Programme aimed to vaccinate every infant and pregnant woman in every district. It added the measles vaccine, trained health workers to hold regular immunisation sessions, and built a national cold chain of ice-lined refrigerators and deep freezers, while the world set itself the goal of wiping out polio.

1980s Indian primary health centre with a green-painted lower wall where one nurse in a white sari writes on a paper immunisation card at a table with a steel tray, another takes vaccine vials from a white chest refrigerator, and mothers holding infants sit on a wooden bench beside a steel almirah and a wall clock — Nurses record doses and take vaccines from the cold chain on immunisation day (artistic illustration).

19 November 1985: The Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) begins in 30 districts, adding the measles vaccine and aiming to protect every infant and pregnant woman.
1986: Immunisation becomes one of the National Technology Missions, which strengthens the cold chain with ice-lined refrigerators, deep freezers, and trained cold chain handlers.
1988: The World Health Assembly launches the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, when polio is paralysing about 350,000 children a year in 125 countries.
1990–1992: UIP reaches all districts of India by about 1990, and in 1992 it becomes part of the Child Survival and Safe Motherhood programme.

Technology

Ice-lined refrigerators: Keep vaccines cold.
Deep freezers: Store OPV and ice packs.
Cold chain: Factory to village.

Features

Every district: National reach.
Session days: Regular schedule.
Measles added: Six diseases covered.

💧 Pulse Polio1995 – 2004

Pulse Polio: Do Boond Zindagi Ki

Routine vaccination alone could not stop polio, so India began national immunisation days. On a single Sunday, lakhs of booths gave two drops of oral polio vaccine to every young child, even those already vaccinated, and teams later went house to house to find children who were missed. A national surveillance network checked every case of sudden weakness.

Mid-1990s village polio booth under a large banyan tree where a volunteer in a sari gives oral drops from a small dropper to a baby held by her mother beside a blue cold box on a table, with a queue of mothers, grandmothers, and toddlers, coloured cloth bunting overhead, and brick houses along a dusty lane — Mothers queue for two drops of polio vaccine on booth day (artistic illustration).

9 December 1995: The first Pulse Polio round gives oral polio drops to about 8.7 crore children under three on a single day, with a second round in January 1996; later rounds cover all children under five.
1997: The National Polio Surveillance Project, run with WHO, starts reporting every case of acute flaccid paralysis (sudden floppy weakness) in children and testing stool samples in a network of laboratories.
1999: Vaccinators begin visiting every house after booth day, and the world’s last case of wild poliovirus type 2 is found in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh.
2002: A large outbreak of about 1,600 cases, mostly in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, shows the virus surviving among crowded, poor communities with weak immunity.

Technology

OPV vials: Two drops per child.
Vial monitors: Labels that change colour with heat.
Lab network: Stool tests for the virus.

Features

Booth Sunday: All children, one day.
Finger marking: Ink on the little finger.
House-to-house: No child missed.

🚆 Last Mile2005 – 2011

The Last Mile: Transit Teams to the Last Case

The virus held on in western Uttar Pradesh and central Bihar, where crowding, floods, diarrhoea, and poor sanitation weakened the vaccine’s effect. India answered with stronger vaccines, more frequent rounds, teams at railway stations and bus stands, mobile teams for migrant families, and community leaders who won the trust of doubtful parents.

Busy Indian railway platform where a vaccination team in blue aprons with a blue cold box gives polio drops to a toddler held by his father beside an open train door and marks the child’s finger, with passengers carrying luggage under the platform canopy — A transit team vaccinates a travelling child at a railway station (artistic illustration).

2005: Monovalent oral polio vaccine type 1 (mOPV1), which gives stronger protection against the most common strain, is introduced in high-risk areas, followed by type 3 vaccine (mOPV3) from 2007.
2006–2009: Cases rise again — 676 in 2006, 874 in 2007, 559 in 2008, and 741 in 2009 — concentrated in about 107 high-risk blocks of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
2000s: Transit teams vaccinate children on trains and at stations and bus stands, mobile teams reach brick kilns, building sites, and flood-hit Kosi villages, and religious leaders and film stars encourage parents.
2010–2011: Bivalent OPV (types 1 and 3) is introduced in January 2010, cases fall to 42, and India’s last wild polio case is an 18-month-old girl in Howrah, West Bengal, on 13 January 2011.

Technology

mOPV and bOPV: Targeted vaccines.
Sewage testing: Virus found in drains.
Microplans: Maps of every house.

Features

Transit teams: Children on the move.
Mobile teams: Migrant families.
Community trust: Local mobilisers.

🏅 Polio-Free2012 – Future

Polio-Free, Certified & Staying Safe

After a full year without a case, India was removed from the list of polio-endemic countries, and after three years it was certified polio-free along with the rest of WHO’s South-East Asia Region. India still vaccinates every child, tests sewage, and screens travellers, because polio anywhere is a risk everywhere.

Joyful village square where smiling women health workers in saris and blue aprons celebrate with a group of children proudly raising their ink-marked fingers, with marigold garlands on whitewashed houses and coloured balloons in golden afternoon light — Health workers and children celebrate a polio-free India (artistic illustration).

24 February 2012: WHO removes India from the list of polio-endemic countries after a full year with no wild polio case.
27 March 2014: WHO certifies India and the South-East Asia Region polio-free, and India begins requiring polio vaccination for travellers from polio-affected countries.
2015–2016: Injectable IPV joins routine immunisation (November 2015), and on 25 April 2016 India, along with the rest of the world, switches from trivalent to bivalent oral polio vaccine.
Today and future: Fractional-dose IPV, Mission Indradhanush catch-up drives, yearly Pulse Polio rounds, sewage surveillance, border vaccination, and the global goal of ending polio everywhere.

Technology

IPV injections: No live virus.
Environmental surveillance: Sewage sampling.
Digital records: Vaccine stock and doses online.

Features

Polio-free status: Since 2014.
Border posts: Children vaccinated.
Routine schedule: OPV plus IPV.

Wild Polio Cases in India, 1998–2012

Reported cases of wild poliovirus from national surveillance. Figures in different reports can vary slightly, and the true number of infections was always much higher, because most infected children never become paralysed.

Year	Reported cases	What was happening
1998	1,934	Surveillance begins finding hidden cases
1999	1,126	House-to-house visits begin
2000	265	Sharp fall after intensive rounds
2002	About 1,600	Big outbreak in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
2004	134	Cases fall again
2005	66	mOPV1 introduced
2006	676	Type 1 outbreak in western Uttar Pradesh
2007	874	Type 3 cases rise; mOPV3 used
2009	741	World’s highest; 107 high-risk blocks targeted
2010	42	Bivalent OPV introduced
2011	1	Last case, Howrah (13 January)
2012	0	Removed from the endemic list

Polio Vaccines Used in India

Vaccine	How it is given	Protects against	Use in India
Trivalent OPV (tOPV)	Oral drops	Types 1, 2, and 3	Routine and campaigns until April 2016
Monovalent OPV type 1 (mOPV1)	Oral drops	Type 1	High-risk campaigns from 2005
Monovalent OPV type 3 (mOPV3)	Oral drops	Type 3	Targeted campaigns from 2007
Bivalent OPV (bOPV)	Oral drops	Types 1 and 3	Campaigns from 2010; routine from 2016
Inactivated polio vaccine (IPV)	Injection in the thigh or arm	Types 1, 2, and 3	Routine immunisation from November 2015
Fractional IPV (fIPV)	Small injection into the skin	Types 1, 2, and 3	Dose-saving schedule in routine immunisation

How India Reached Every Child

Modern district vaccine store with rows of white ice-lined refrigerators with temperature displays, a pharmacist in a white coat checking a small vaccine vial with a heat-sensitive label, blue vaccine carriers stacked on steel racks, and a tablet showing a stock graph on a steel counter — A pharmacist checks vaccine vials in a district cold chain store (artistic illustration).

Tool or strategy	What it did
Cold chain	Kept vaccines cold from factory to village
Vaccine vial monitor	A label that changes colour if a vial gets too warm
Booth day	Vaccinated every child under five on one day
Finger marking	Ink on the left little finger showed a child was vaccinated
House marking	Chalk marks on doors showed visited houses and missed children
Microplans	Maps and lists of every house, team, and route
Transit teams	Vaccinated children at stations, bus stands, and on trains
Mobile teams	Reached brick kilns, building sites, and nomadic families
Paralysis surveillance	Every case of sudden weakness in children tested
Sewage surveillance	Found the virus in drains before children fell ill
Social mobilisation	Local mobilisers, religious leaders, and celebrities built trust

Polio Eradication in India Timeline Summary

Year / Era	Milestone
1908	Poliovirus identified
1955	Salk’s injected vaccine licensed
Early 1960s	Sabin’s oral vaccine comes into use
1974	WHO launches global EPI
1978	India launches EPI
1983	National Health Policy sets immunisation goals
1985	Universal Immunization Programme (19 November)
1986	Technology Mission on immunisation
1988	Global Polio Eradication Initiative
1995	First Pulse Polio round (9 December)
1997	National Polio Surveillance Project
1999	House-to-house visits; last wild type 2 case
2002	Outbreak of about 1,600 cases
2005	mOPV1 introduced
2009	741 cases, the world’s highest
2010	Bivalent OPV introduced
2011	Last wild polio case (13 January)
2012	Removed from the endemic list (24 February)
2014	Certified polio-free (27 March)
2015	IPV in routine immunisation
2016	Switch from trivalent to bivalent OPV (25 April)
Future	A polio-free world

Timeline understanding Public health Community action Science awareness

Ask your parents or grandparents whether they remember Pulse Polio Sundays and the “Do Boond Zindagi Ki” advertisements.
Make a timeline poster: 1978 EPI, 1985 UIP, 1995 Pulse Polio, 2011 last case, 2012 polio-free, and 2014 certification.
Look at your own immunisation card with an adult and list the polio doses you received.
Draw the cold chain: factory, state store, district store, health centre, vaccine carrier, and child.
Explain in your own words the difference between oral polio vaccine and injected polio vaccine.
Interview an ASHA, anganwadi worker, or nurse about what happens on a Pulse Polio day.
Use the cases table to draw a bar graph of polio cases in India from 1998 to 2012.
Design a poster that explains why clean water and handwashing help stop diseases like polio.
Find out which countries still report wild polio today and why India still vaccinates at its borders.
Debate: “India’s polio campaign is the best example of teamwork in public health.”

Continue exploring

The polio campaign reached families through television, radio, railways, and Indian science. Explore these connected timelines next.

Television timeline Radio timeline Railway timeline Research in India timeline More India timelines All timelines

Moments Through Visual Stories

Click any panel to expand and explore the visual mood.

India’s fight against polio in pictures — the rehabilitation ward, the village vaccine carrier, the health centre cold chain, the Pulse Polio booth, the railway transit team, the polio-free celebration, the modern vaccine store, and then versus now.

Endemic Polio

Calipers and care

EPI Launched

Vaccines on ice

Universal Immunization

Every district

Pulse Polio

Two drops of life

Transit Team

Children on the move

Polio-Free

Certified in 2014

Cold Chain

Vaccines kept cold

Then vs Now

Syringe to drops

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Disclaimer: This content is AI-generated for educational purposes and may contain errors or outdated details. For correct and authoritative information, please refer to official and reliable sources such as government publications, manufacturers, museums, and academic references.

Polio Eradication Timeline of India: Endemic Disease → EPI → Universal Immunization → Pulse Polio → Polio-Free → Certified

Why the Story of Polio Eradication Matters

India’s fight against polio in one view

Polio in India Then vs Now at a Glance

Polio Everywhere: Calipers & Crutches

Technology

Features

Expanded Programme on Immunization

Technology

Features

Universal Immunization Programme

Technology

Features

Pulse Polio: Do Boond Zindagi Ki

Technology

Features

The Last Mile: Transit Teams to the Last Case

Technology

Features

Polio-Free, Certified & Staying Safe

Technology

Features

Wild Polio Cases in India, 1998–2012

Polio Vaccines Used in India

How India Reached Every Child

Polio Eradication in India Timeline Summary

Test Your Knowledge

Students Tasks

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Moments Through Visual Stories

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