Twenty years ago in 1985 a pilot project for a national rubella immunization programme was carried out by the Ministiy of Health in four states, following two years of planning including a thorough review for justifying the programme . It was clear then that active immunization against rubella was the only effective way of preventing and subsequently eliminating congenital rubella syndrome (CRS), by far the most important consequence of rubella infection and the most compelling justification for a national immunization programme. Measures like isolation of infected persons to segregate them from infecting a pregnant woman are not feasible, for many reasons, not least of them being the fact that a large majority of infections remain sub-clinical, and if at all manifested, the symptoms vary and are generally mild.