India, May 16 -- Zero is the only acceptable number when it comes to children who go unimmunised. Zero children left behind, zero missed doses, zero preventable deaths. Yet, across the world, millions of children still miss out on life-saving vaccines-often with tragic consequences.

Every seven seconds, a newborn dies somewhere in the world. More than two million newborns die in their first month of life with another two million stillborn. A heartbreaking number of these deaths are preventable-with immunisation playing a critical role.

In the last three decades, India has slashed its under-five mortality rate from 126 to 32 per 1,000 live births-a stunning achievement that speaks to the power of public health programmes, particularly th...