India Achieves Zero Polio for 15 Consecutive Years, WHO Certifies...

The World Health Organisation formally certified India polio-free status for the 15th consecutive year, acknowledging the country sustained interruption of wild poliovirus transmission since January 13, 2011. The achievement is extraordinary for a country that once accounted for nearly half the world polio cases and was considered the most difficult context in which to achieve elimination due to population density, sanitation challenges, and complex vaccine hesitancy patterns. The Pulse Polio immunisation programme, which administers oral vaccines to every child under five in a single national day, reached 172 million children in 2025 across 32 million immunisation booths. The Union Health Ministry attributed the sustained success to geospatial tracking of zero-dose children, rapid response surveillance, and a dedicated cadre of 2.3 million frontline vaccination workers.