Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav announced on Wednesday, 10 June 2026 that the state has achieved a landmark milestone in its HPV vaccination campaign against cervical cancer, inoculating more than 7.63 lakh eligible girls in just 60 days — a feat he described as unprecedented at the national level.

Context

Posting on X, Dr. Yadav wrote: 'बेहतर स्वास्थ्य सेवाओं के लिए संकल्पित मध्यप्रदेश सरकार' ['Madhya Pradesh government committed to better health services'], adding that the state had achieved an 'unprecedented achievement across the country' in the HPV vaccination campaign launched to protect against the deadly disease of cervical cancer. The post was tagged #ViksitMadhyaPradesh, the state government's development branding.

Cervical cancer, caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), represents one of India's most significant public health burdens. The disease is largely preventable through vaccination administered before the onset of sexual activity, making adolescent girls the primary target group for immunisation drives.

Policy Backdrop

India's push to mainstream HPV vaccination gained decisive momentum in 2022, when the Government of India announced the inclusion of the HPV vaccine in the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) for girls aged 9 to 14 years. This followed earlier pilot programmes run between 2016 and 2018 in states including Punjab, Delhi, and Sikkim.

The National Health Policy 2017 had already identified prevention of cervical cancer as a priority under the country's non-communicable disease control framework, laying the groundwork for the eventual national rollout. Madhya Pradesh's campaign is part of this broader, decentralised push under the UIP, with state health departments driving on-ground implementation through public health workers.

Stakeholders and Impact

The direct beneficiaries of the campaign are adolescent girls across Madhya Pradesh, with the state government reporting that more than 7.63 lakh eligible girls received the vaccine within the campaign's first 60 days. Frontline health workers — including ASHA workers, ANMs, and district health officials — have been central to mobilising families and administering doses at scale.

For public health advocates, the reported pace of coverage is significant in a large, geographically diverse state like Madhya Pradesh, which has historically faced challenges in reaching rural and tribal populations with preventive health interventions. A rapid rollout of this scale, if sustained, could meaningfully reduce the state's long-term cervical cancer incidence.

What's Next

Attention will now turn to whether Madhya Pradesh can sustain this momentum to achieve full coverage across all eligible age cohorts, and how the state's numbers compare in forthcoming National Health Mission data releases on state-wise HPV vaccination coverage. Any expansion of the eligible age bracket under the Universal Immunisation Programme at the central level would further widen the campaign's scope. The state's performance may also serve as a benchmark for other states calibrating their own HPV drives under the national framework.