In the first hours of life, before a newborn leaves the hospital, India's Universal Immunization Programme begins a year-long dialogue between medicine and vulnerability. The vaccination schedule — from birth through twelve months — is not a bureaucratic formality but a biological necessity, timed to the precise window when a mother's borrowed antibodies fade and an infant's own defenses must rise to meet diseases that once defined childhood mortality. Across the world, immunization prevents between 3.5 and 5 million deaths each year; in India, this protection is offered freely to every child,
India's infant vaccination schedule: A month-by-month guide for parents
Vaccines prevent severe complications including pneumonia, meningitis, paralysis and death in vulnerable infants during their first year of life.