Lower percentage of females are getting vaccinated against Covid-19 compared to males in the Kashmir valley.
According to the data available on the Covid-19 Vaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN) portal, which tracks the beneficiaries on a real-time basis, Srinagar district has the highest gendered difference among vaccinated individuals.
A day before the third phase of Covid-19 vaccination began on May 1, females constituted 27% of the vaccinated population in Srinagar district. Although the number of women getting vaccinated picked up a little since the opening of vaccination for ages 18-44, it is still 29% of the overall vaccinated population till May 5.
In Srinagar district, 71 men are getting vaccinated against every 29 women and for frontier Kupwara district of north Kashmir it is 64 men to 36 women. While the national average for women makes up for 48% of the total vaccinated population, for Jammu and Kashmir, the average is 41%.
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Four out of ten districts in Kashmir have a lower percentage of women getting vaccinated against men than that of the Union Territory (UT) level of 41%. In the remaining six districts of the Valley, three each have 42% and 43% women among the vaccinated population.
Given that the existing data is mostly about beneficiaries who are above 45 years of age, it is assumed that most of them are married and living with their families. That means that there are a lot of families whose male members are getting vaccinated while female members are being left out.
A senior health department official said that there was a need for awareness campaigns to encourage women to take the vaccine. “Vehicles that are announcing lockdown through loudspeakers should also be used to disseminate information on vaccines. Besides, to make vaccination easy and accessible for women, the government can set up all-women vaccination centres,” he suggested.
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