Implementing and Evaluating Immunization Incentives at Scale in Haryana

Immunization is one of the most cost-effective ways to improve child health in developing countries. In India, at most 54 percent of children aged 12 to 24 months are fully immunized. The government has invested heavily in improving vaccine delivery. However, this big push to improve access has had limited impact. In Haryana, official full immunization rates actually fell from 60 percent in 2007-2008 to 52 percent in 2012-2013. This project will provide technical assistance to the Government of Haryana to scale an evidenced-based model to build demand for vaccinations by providing small incentives to parents. The model is based on a seminal J-PAL evaluation in Rajasthan, which covered 134 villages. The main finding that households were very sensitive to small incentives has been replicated in other contexts, but not yet implemented on a large scale. J-PAL will provide support to replicate the program in 1,300 villages. A randomized evaluation will assess the impact of incentives, along with two complementary interventions to build demand through information, to help make the case for further scale up. For more on the program, see this December 2016 article in The Pioneer. For more on the ongoing evaluation, see this evaluation summary.