On April 10, a little less than two percent more men than women were vaccinated.
Two weeks later, on April 24, the gap widened to 12 percent. And on May 6, the day the country’s new infections hit 4.14 lakh, almost 24 percent more men than women were vaccinated.
This gender gap in India’s vaccination campaign is also reflected in the cumulative numbers.
By the first half of April, almost nine percent more men received the stitches than women. The gap is now 15 percent. All of these calculations are based on a seven-day moving average of daily vaccine doses.
The Indian vaccination program was opened to everyone over the age of 45 from April 1st.
As the environment expanded, so did the chance for everyone to try it out.
By the way, April was one of the better months in terms of the average daily vaccination.
Incorrect gender relationship
India is home to one of the most distorted gender relations in the world. Data shows that there are 5.7 percent more men in the country.
A gap of more than six percent in vaccines administered would therefore mean that the vaccination program reflects prevailing gender statistics.
MORE MEN’S CORNER JABS
But everything above suggests that men corner most of Covid-related preventive care.
For this crucial parameter, the data shows that most states failed the gender parity test in the vaccination campaign.
A review of government data by India Today’s Data Intelligence Unit shows that the desire to get vaccinated increased when the second wave turned angry. And with that, the gender gap in the program began to widen.
The period from April to the first half of May was the deadliest phase of the second wave of coronavirus in India.
In fact, May was the worst month in terms of deaths from Covid infections. And this is the time when the gender segregation of vaccination continued to expand.
WHY IS THAT?
The factors presumably range from the prioritization of the predominantly male workforce to access to the Internet – and thus to CoWIN – to a traditional patriarchal structure.
According to a recent Deloitte survey, less than a quarter of women in India are gainfully employed and earn an average of 35 percent less than men.
The fifth National Family Health Survey (NFHS) last December found that more than 60 percent of women in 12 states and Union territories have never used the Internet. The study included 22 states and UTs in the country.
On average, fewer than three in ten women in rural India and four in ten women in urban India have ever used the internet, the NFHS data showed.
Raman Gangakhedkar, former senior scientist on epidemiology and communicable diseases at the ICMR, says the gender gap in the immunization program “is more a reflection of gender inequality along with other demographic factors”.
The data show that of all states and union territories, only proportionally more women were vaccinated in Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala.
The population of Kerala has nearly seven percent more women, but eleven percent more women have been vaccinated in the state.
In Karnataka, more men received the doses in absolute terms, but proportionally women received more vaccinations than their share of the state’s population.
But in Tamil Nadu, which has more women than men, the vaccination for men is disproportionately higher than that for women.
Among other states, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh are the ones where the gender gap when it comes to vaccination is quite large. It is 30 percent in Punjab, 38 percent in Delhi, 21 percent in Bihar, 33 percent in Uttar Pradesh and 27 percent in West Bengal.
Incidentally, Bihar and West Bengal are among the states in which fewer women have a cell phone. Only half of their female population have access to mobile technology, data shows.
WOMEN AHEAD IN AMERICA’S VAX RACES
Compare the gender gap in the Indian vaccination program and that of the United States. Women in America are more likely to be vaccinated than men.
According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 38.9 percent of the male population in the United States received the vaccinations, compared with 43.1 percent of the female population.
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