Does seasonal migration for sugarcane harvesting influence routine immunization coverage? A cross-sectional study from rural Maharashtra.

A cross-sectional study was conducted to estimate and to compare immunization coverage and to understand reasons of partial/non-immunization among children of seasonal migrant sugarcane harvesting laborers and nonmigrating children. Caretakers of a total of 420 children between 12 and 23 months age were interviewed in 30 clusters consisting 14 children from each cluster (seven from each group) by expanded program on immunization cluster survey method. Statistical analysis was performed with proportions, their 95% confidence intervals (CI), Chi-square test, and binary logistic regression. Full immunization coverage rate was 89.5% (95% CI: 86.5-92.5) for children in nonmigrating group and 70.5% (95% CI: 66.0-74.9) for migrant group. Reasons cited for unimmunized/partially immunized were, place or time of vaccination not known, unavailability of immunization services at site, inconvenient time of sessions, unaware of need for vaccination etc. Thus full immunization coverage rate was significantly lower among children of seasonal migrant sugarcane harvesting laborers.