NCW asks states to take measures to bridge gender gap in Covid vaccination

Raising concerns over gender gap in COVID-19 vaccine administration, the NCW has written to all states and UTs to take measures to ensure that women are not left behind in the vaccination drive.

In a letter to all chief secretaries, the National Commission for Women (NCW) referred to a media report that highlighted the low uptake of anti-Covid jabs among women.

"The gap in immunisation coverage between the two genders is a matter of great concern for the Commission and, therefore, Chairperson Rekha Sharma has written to chief secretaries of all States/UTs to take measures to close the gender gap in vaccination and to ensure that women are not left behind in the vaccination drive," the NCW said.

The Commission said the report has highlighted that the current gender gap in administering vaccines is significantly more among the elderly population than the younger women.

"It reflects the existing gender stereotypes in the society due to which women are being left behind and the reasons include unequal access to resources and technology for both genders," it said.

The Commission stated that there is an urgent need to increase the proportion of women coming to vaccination booths for receiving the vaccine so that the gap in immunisation coverage can be corrected.

"There is also a need to create public health awareness so that more and more women are vaccinated on priority," the NCW said.

In its letter, NCW has mentioned that in many households, women's health is not considered a priority as compared to men if they do not work outside the home and end up getting less preference for vaccination but women, being the primary care-givers, are more likely to get infected while taking care of any sick member of the family.

"The state government should also continue the campaigns so as to ensure correct information reaches to the remotest part of India," the commission said.

According to government data, 27,86,40,043 men and 24,75,03,625 women have been vaccinated against COVID-19 till now.