NCW takes cognizance of gender gap in vaccination; requests states to make amends

Taking cognizance of the low uptake of COVID-19 vaccination among women, NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma urged states to address the gender gap in inoculation. In a letter addressed to the Chief Secretaries of all states on Friday, she stated that the gender gap in immunization coverage was a matter of "great concern". Sharma cited a media report which indicated that the gender gap in administering vaccines is more among the elderly population than the younger women.

According to her, the reason for the same might be unequal access to resources and technology. She added, "There is an urgent need to increase the proportion of women coming to vaccination booths for receiving the vaccine so that the gap in immunization coverage can be corrected. We are bringing this to your notice and urge for your kind intervention to issue a direction to Health departments of your respective states/UTs to take measures to close the gender gap in administering doses and to ensure that women are not left behind in the vaccination drive". 

Earlier on July 23, 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. 

COVID-19 vaccination in India

Apart from Covishield and Covaxin, the DCGI has approved Sputnik V, Moderna, and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. From June 21 onwards, the Centre started procuring 75% of the vaccine stock and distributing it to the states for free. The vaccination drive is gaining pace with 13.45 crore jabs administered in July- a 12.5% increase against June's 11.96 crore inoculations. As per sources, 40 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines will be available per month by October. 

This will be possible as a total of 7 vaccines are set to be available by October with Biological E's Corbevax, Zydus Cadila's DNA vaccine and Gennova's mRNA vaccine likely to get approval soon. The government has already hinted at vaccinating the entire adult population i.e nearly 90 crore people by December itself. A total of 40,38,74,121 persons have been inoculated whereas 11,42,78,372 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too.