In Gujarat, a 14-year-old girl walks into a government health centre, signs nothing but a parent's consent form, and leaves one step safer against a cancer that kills tens of thousands of women in India every year. She is one of more than 8 million girls who have now received a free single-dose HPV vaccine under India's National HPV Vaccination Campaign since it launched in February 2026.
That number — 80 lakh doses in just over a year — marks a major milestone in India's fight against cervical cancer, a disease caused mostly by the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). The vaccine stops that infection before it can ever turn into cancer, which is why the country is racing to reach every girl before she turns 15.
The campaign, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, targets the roughly 1.2 crore girls who turn 14 each year, based on 2021 estimates from the Registrar General of India. The vaccination is voluntary, free, and given with parental consent at government health facilities across the country.
And the numbers show it is working. Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram have all hit 100 per cent coverage of their identified target groups. Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Assam have crossed 90 per cent, Karnataka tops 85 per cent, and Chhattisgarh, Sikkim, Kerala, Telangana and Odisha have passed 60 per cent. Uttar Pradesh alone has vaccinated more than 22 lakh girls — the highest of any state.
What makes this push remarkable is how it reaches girls in rural, remote and mountainous corners of the country. The campaign leans on a vast army of frontline health workers — including ASHAs (community health volunteers) and ANMs (nurse-midwives) — alongside teachers, paediatricians and gynaecologists. Experts from institutions like AIIMS have helped spread accurate information and push back against misinformation about the vaccine. The government's U-WIN digital platform lets district managers watch coverage in real time, spot the girls who've been missed, and steer resources where they're needed most.
India's effort builds on proven global experience. More than 800 million doses of HPV vaccine have been distributed worldwide, giving decades of real-world safety data. And the vaccine is no longer just for wealthy nations: today 87 per cent of upper-middle-income countries, 78 per cent of lower-middle-income countries and 54 per cent of low-income countries have added HPV shots to their national immunisation programmes.
With millions of girls already protected and whole states reaching every single target, India's campaign is turning a once-distant hope into daily reality — one 14-year-old at a time.