In a bid to digitise vaccination records of women and children, the Himachal Pradesh government has decided to implement all state vaccination programmes through the U-WIN portal, according to a report by Economic Times. The Solan and Sirmaur districts of the state are already a part of the Indian government's pilot project to digitise Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) through U-WIN. In Himachal Pradesh, residents are required to provide their Aadhaar and mobile number for registering on U-WIN. According to the report, an estimated 43,000 people are expected to benefit from the portal annually. What is U-WIN? Remember Co-WIN, the Covid-19 vaccination portal? U-WIN is just a replica of Co-WIN, which is being pitched by the Indian government as a one-stop source for all information on a mother and child’s immunisation process. According to the Economic Times report, once the U-WIN portal is fully implemented, it will maintain records of pregnant women, delivery outcomes, vaccination status and plans of routine immunisation sessions. The Indian government has piloted the project in select two districts of every State and Union Territory since January 2023. Why it matters: Digitisation of health records is one of the key focus-areas of the India's 'Digital India' and Health Stack plans. The government has greatly emphasised on facilitating interoperability of health data and services by leveraging the use of Ayushman Bharat Health Accounts, Co-WIN platform and the upcoming Unified Health Interface project. By bringing in U-WIN, another health database will be added to further centralise granular information on…
