The narrow road to Resubelpara block winds past rice fields and low, mist-covered ranges in the North Garo Hills district in Meghalaya. On 5 August 2025, a WHO rapid response team arrived in the villages of Kaskona, Bongbachi-2 and Gonsinpita Bakra to not just monitor immunization surveys, but to listen to what the community had to say.
WHO supported the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, implement the mission through independent organizations under Meghalaya’s Behavioural and Social Drivers (BeSD) initiative, which is designed to dig deeper than immunization numbers. It asks: What do parents believe about vaccines? What holds them back from immunizing their children? In these remote and hard-to-reach hilly areas of Meghalaya, the answers are not always simple.
Walking alongside government surveyors, WHO teams provided mentoring and guidance on the practicalities of identifying ‘zero-dose’ children and ‘potential zero-dose children’ – children who have never been vaccinated or are at risk of never being vaccinated – and identify gaps that could have hidden stories and voices that mattered.
“Every child matters. Every home counts,” one WHO monitor reminded the surveyors as the team paused under the shade of a betel-nut tree to explain the indicators in simple terms. The survey team called at every door as they moved house to house, weaving a more complete picture of the community.
WHO teams provided mentoring and guidance to government surveyors in the implementation of the Behavioural and Social Drivers initiative designed to deep-dive into the perceptions and concerns of the community around immunization to identify the hidden stories and voices that mattered. (Photo: Abel Marak / © WHO India)
Surveyors gently probed and listened to families, mostly mothers. A mother cradling her newborn explained that she feared side-effects from vaccines; another shared that the nearest health post was too far to reach during the rainy season. These conversations, small and personal, became the building blocks of a strategy to close immunization gaps. WHO India shared the feedback with the BeSD focal person for further strengthening immunization coverage.
Back at the district level, these insights flow into a bigger picture. WHO India’s field support ensures health workers are supervised, outreach vaccination sessions are monitored, and immunization data is used for real planning—not just filing. Microplans to ensure full immunization coverage of every child are refined so that vaccines, staff, and time reach the right people in the right place.
India’s national immunization programme now protects children from 12 deadly diseases, including measles, polio, diphtheria, and hepatitis B, with new vaccines against rotavirus diarrhoea and pneumococcal pneumonia reaching more states every year. In endemic districts, Japanese Encephalitis vaccines are also given to protect countless children at risk.
In the North Garo Hills in Meghalaya, this progress is measured not only in coverage percentages, but in the quiet victories: a team learning to ask better questions, a mother deciding to vaccinate, a health worker reaching one more household. Change here happens step by step, conversation by conversation—and it’s how no child is left behind.