Gender Gap in Vaccination Reduces, but Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra Still Lag

By: WE Staff | Tuesday, 12 October 2021

Indian states are eliminating gender gap in Covid-19 vaccination drive. Almost 11 states have removed gender bias in Covid-19 vaccination but it is still visible in other states. These states includes higher human development index such as Delhi, Goa, Maharashtra.

UNESCO released a chart based on gender parity index — a socioeconomic index, to calculate the gender equity in education. It shows that GPI of country is 0.98 (the ideal ratio is 1). Dr. Sachin Pandey, a Gandhinagar-based professor said, “this index was 0.9 on June 27”.

Here arise a question, can the country score the perfect index of 1? About this Dr Pandey said that India’s GPI is improving from the last four months but there is less chance to score perfect index of 1. The reasons of less chance are the fear of vaccination among pregnant women and migration. Delhi and Mumbai have low GPI.

Dr Pandey stated, “This could be because though migrants rushed back with their families to their homes during the first wave they turned to metro cities alone. They got vaccinated in cities while the wives got vaccinated in their home state. This could explain why states such as Bihar and Odisha have higher ratio of 1.0 and 0.9 respectively”.

The states with good GPI at the present are Assam (1.0), Karnataka (0.1), Andhra Pradesh (1.1) and West Bengal (1.0). A GPI between 0.97 and 1.03 shows equality between genders. Delhi, the capital of India is at 0.83 while Goa is going better with 0.85 ratio.

In Maharashtra, the GPI of women’s day vaccination drives were held in capital Mumbai is 0.9. In Maharashtra, 4.78 crore shots were given to men as compared to women with 4.06 crore shots.

According to Dr. Vibhuti Patel, professor of Tata Institutes of Social Science mentioned that “there are regional variations” that need to solved otherwise all-India figures looks satisfactory. She said, “The vaccination drive has gaps on the lines of class, cases and gender”. “Even in cities, lower middle classes or even the deprived classes have ensured that their men get vaccinated even if it means paying money. The mind-set that men and boys are more important and should get vaccinated before girls and women is evident”, added Dr. Patel.