Centre confirms gender gap in administration of COVID-19 jabs; blames earlier guidelines

On Friday, Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani confirmed that there is a gender gap when it comes to the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive. She was responding to a specific unstarred question regarding the same by Lok Sabha MPs Kumbakudi Sudhakaran and PP Mohammed Faizal. Irani highlighted that women comprised only 46.32 per cent of the 35.89 crore vaccinations done till July 7. However, the census data of 2011 shows that women constitute about 48.05 per cent of the total population in the country. 

Explaining this phenomenon, Irani stated, "The difference of approximately 2% between estimated proportion of females and proportion of vaccinations of females could be due to earlier guidelines which had mentioned pregnancy and lactation as contra-indications for COVID-19 vaccination. However, subsequent to review of evolving scientific evidence, COVID-19 vaccination has been allowed for lactating women from 19.05.2021 and for pregnant women from 02.07.2021. The COVID-19 vaccination drive does not make any discrimination on the basis of gender, socio-economic conditions or residence etc of citizens."

The Centre has maintained that pregnant women with underlying medical conditions such as high blood pressure, obesity and those aged above 35 are at a higher risk of severe illness due to COVID-19. Weighing in on the safety and necessity of vaccines for pregnant women, the Ministry of Health stressed that novel coronavirus infections might increase the possibility of pre-mature delivery and the death of the baby before birth. They can register either on the Co-WIN platform or on-site at the COVID-19 vaccination centre to get themselves inoculated. 

Coronavirus vaccination in India

Apart from Covishield and Covaxin, the DCGI accepted the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, paving way for the approval of Sputnik V and Moderna on April 12 and June 29 respectively. From June 21 onwards, the Union government has started procuring 75% of the vaccine stock and distributing it to the states free of cost for all adults aged above 18. Without giving a specific deadline, the Centre has hinted that all adults might be vaccinated by December 2021. A total of 33,69,71,426 persons have been inoculated whereas 9,12,07,892 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too.