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socialsamosa.com

Pulse Polio: Do Boond Zindagi Ki

Also: Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme communication · Do Boond Zindagi Ki (Two drops of life)

“Do Boond Zindagi Ki”

Communication for India's Pulse Polio mass oral polio vaccine days, launched in Delhi on 2 October 1994 and national from 1995 under the line 'Do Boond Zindagi Ki' ('two drops of life'). From 2002 the Ministry of Health and UNICEF used Ogilvy & Mather for national mass media, with Amitabh Bachchan as ambassador, alongside UNICEF's door-to-door Social Mobilization Network in resistant communities of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Years
1994–2014
Country
India
Topic
Vaccination
Asks people to
Start
Strategy
CelebrityMulti level communitySimple instructionTrusted messenger
Channel
EventsOutdoorPrintRadioTV
Audience
Parents
Parents of children under five, with special effort among vaccine-resistant households in western Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Evidence

ObservationalPositive

Programme-level outcome: reported polio cases fell from about 1,600 (2002) to 66 (2005), resurged to 741 (2009), then 42 (2010) and 1 (2011); India was removed from the endemic list in February 2012 and certified polio-free in 2014 (Social Samosa summary of programme data). Siddique et al. (2016, UNICEF authors) credit the 7,300-strong, mostly female Social Mobilization Network with converting resistant families. Weiss et al. (2013): in CORE Group areas of Uttar Pradesh, mothers' exposure to specific communication materials was associated with children's DPT receipt (no control group). The separate effect of the celebrity mass-media campaign is not estimated; vaccine changes (monovalent/bivalent OPV) and operations also drove the result.

Sponsor (who paid)

  • Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India Foreign government, funder and programme owner
  • UNICEF India Multilateral, communication partner and Social Mobilization Network
  • World Health Organization (National Polio Surveillance Project) and Rotary International Multilateral, partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative

Credits (who made it)

Sources

  1. Brand saga: Pulse Polio campaign (Social Samosa) history · 2020
  2. Siddique AR, Singh P, Trivedi G. Role of Social Mobilization (Network) in Polio Eradication in India. Indian Pediatr 2016;53 Suppl 1:S50-S56 history · 2016 · PMID 27771640
  3. Weiss WM, Choudhary M, Solomon R. Performance and determinants of routine immunization coverage within the context of intensive polio eradication activities in Uttar Pradesh, India: SM Net and CORE Group Polio Project. BMC Int Health Hum Rights 2013;13:25 evaluation · 2013 · DOI 10.1186/1472-698X-13-25 · PMID 23680228

Research notes

Ogilvy & Mather credit (Ministry of Health and UNICEF brought the agency in in 2002; Bachchan PSA scripted by Piyush Pandey and Ajay Gahlaut; director Santosh Sivan) fetched from Social Samosa 2026-10-22. Other sources (search snippets) credit Gahlaut with writing the 'Do Boond Zindagi Ki' line, which predates 2002; the original 1994-2001 agency is not verified. Ogilvy office (Delhi or Mumbai) not verified. Case figures are secondary; confirm against WHO/NPSP data before citing. The 2011 'This Close' phase is mentioned in the same source.

Record cases/in-pulse-polio.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign