India’s Vaccination Strategy Excludes The Most Vulnerable

Out of the 376 million COVID-19 vaccine doses that India had administered as of July 12, men had received 202 million, while women had received only 175 million. This gender gap in vaccine rollout exceeds the extent to which men outnumber women in the population, and is due to a number of factors including the methods by which people can access vaccines.India largely relies on digital tools to allocate vaccines, and men have greater digital access than women.

Only 60% of the people with post-secondary education have a smartphone. This number drops to 30% when it comes to people with secondary education and this number further falls to 7% for people with less than secondary education. 70% of the adult indians fall in the last category.

Digital fluency is defined as having ever either downloaded an application or searched the internet on a mobile phone. Close to 70% of the people with post-secondary education are digitally fluent while this number falls to 11% for the people with less than a secondary education.

When it comes to gender, 75% of Indian men reported owning to a mobile phone while only 45% women reported owning a mile phone. 24% of men owned a smartphone while under 10% women had a smartphone. Apart from this, 32% men were digitally fluent while only 15% women were digitally fluent.

The Supreme Court recently said that the government’s registration requirements for COVID vaccine were too rigid and needed more flexibility. Turning to a more hybrid model for vaccine restoration would help meting the challenge of gender disparity in vaccination.