Dev Kumari, an accredited social health activist (ASHA) worker employed under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in Badaun district, western Uttar Pradesh, is satisfied. “At the peak of the second phase of Mission Indradhanush (September 11 to 16), I was able to perform my work efficiently,” she says, of the immunisation programme launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2014, targeting children below five to bring them under the Universal Immunization Programme (UIP).
Contributing to her efficiency is an immunisation wheel, a job aid that helps frontline health workers calculate dates for childhood vaccinations. “The third phase will begin in October, and I hope to be as productive,” said Ms. Kumari, whose primary job is to be a health promoter at the village level.
The immunization wheel, called a teekakaran chakra in Hindi, is a simple plastic-laminated cardboard construction developed and funded by the Clinton Foundation, under the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI). It consists of two discs, placed one on top of the other, one bigger than the other, and attached with a rivet. The smaller one has details of the vaccines and arrows; the larger one has a calendar with days and months.
