New Delhi: It’s International Women’s Day Monday, 8 March, and many states are looking at marking the day with special Covid vaccination sessions for women.
Covid-19 vaccination guidelines call upon states and Union Territories (UTs) to mobilise beneficiaries for walk-in slots, and this is how the Women’s Day plans will be executed.
While Karnataka is setting up exclusive “pink booths” to target eligible women beneficiaries, Odisha has decided to give the shot to at least 20 women at each of its over 22o vaccination centres — over and above the beneficiaries that walk in or register themselves.
Uttar Pradesh and Assam have their own plans in place, even as Chhattisgarh — which has a women officer at the helm in the health department — has taken a conscious call not to do anything special for Women’s Day.
India opened up vaccinations for the general population on 1 March, but it’s currently only open to those aged 60 and above (as of 1 January 2022) and people aged 45 and above (as of 1 January 2022) with comorbidities.
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What states have planned
In Uttar Pradesh, all 75 districts have been asked to organise special all-women sessions — of both vaccine officials and beneficiaries. Each session will cater to at least 100 beneficiaries.
Governor Anandiben Patel herself will get vaccinated at Lucknow Civil Hospital Monday morning, along with other women beneficiaries.
“All districts have been asked to organise three special sessions on the occasion of Women’s Day — at least one should be in a rural area. The crew during these sessions right from the constables to the vaccinators and the verifiers will all be women and so will the beneficiaries,” said Uttar Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary Amit Mohan Prasad.
“The number of beneficiaries will depend on the size of the centre but each session would cater to at least 100 beneficiaries. We have left it to the districts to decide whether to get beneficiaries through walk-ins or pre-registrations. They just have to be eligible — that is either aged above 60 years or between 45-59 years with the designated comorbidities.”
This is in addition to the mobilisations that district administrations were asked to ensure during a video conference with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Saturday.
During that meeting, district magistrates were asked to use the services of field-level workers from various departments — not just health — to spread the word about vaccinations and get people to the booths.
20 women in every Odisha centre
The Odisha government, too, has lined up a special programme.
“We have decided that, in every vaccination centre, over and above those that have already been given slots or are walking in, 20 women will be vaccinated to observe Women’s Day,” said Additional Chief Secretary Pradipta Kumar Mahapatra.
The state has over 220 vaccination centres.
In Assam, apart from a special vaccination push, there are also plans to hold cancer screening programmes.
“We will have special sessions across the state in every district for women, including in the Guwahati Medical College. This is really an extension of the work we have been doing for the last 20-25 days with special focus on women. In addition, under the National Health Mission, we will conduct breast and cervical cancer screening,” said Principal Secretary (Health) Samir Kumar Sinha.
In Karnataka, the government has decided to designate some vaccination booths as “pink booths” that will focus exclusively on eligible women beneficiaries.
However, Chhattisgarh has decided against conducting any special drive on Women’s Day.
“Our effort is to focus on women not just one special day of the year, but every day,” said a senior officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “That is the goal we are working towards so we are not going to do anything special on that single day.”
Since vaccinations first began on 16 January — health and frontline workers were targeted in the first phase — more than 2 crore (2,09,22,344) vaccine doses have been administered through 3,39,145 sessions, according to provisional figures until 7 am Sunday.
This is the number of people who have been administered the first of two vaccine doses that recipients of Covaxin and Covishield — the two vaccines being offered in India — are required to take.
These include 69,82,637 healthcare workers, 65,85,752 frontline workers, 4,76,041 beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific comorbidities, and and 31,23,873 beneficiaries aged more than 60 years.
Of these, 35,42,123 healthcare and 2,11,918 frontline workers have received the second dose.
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