BHUBANESWAR: Amid vaccine hesitancy and rumours surrounding COVID vaccination, tribal districts fared better in inoculation of women than men as compared to the most literate and developed coastal districts in Odisha.
Even as women comprised about 47 per cent (pc) of the total population vaccinated with single dose in the State, more women have been inoculated than their male counterparts in six districts, including four tribal-dominated ones.
The State has administered COVID vaccine doses to 1.06 crore men and 96.42 lakh women that amounts to around 903 women vaccinated against 1,000 men.
While the vaccine hesitancy among women, especially among the tribes, continued to be a challenge for health officials in many States, after initial hiccups, Odisha seems to have managed to overcome it through awareness and involvement of community members.
According to the CoWIN dashboard, the number of vaccinated women is more than men in six districts - Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Koraput, Nabarangpur and Rayagada. The women and men vaccination ratio is better in Ganjam as 10.90 lakh women have got at least a single dose as against 10.45 lakh men. Similarly, 1.28 lakh women and 1.22 lakh men have been administered vaccine doses in Gajapati.
In the tribal districts, 3.57 lakh women and 3.36 lakh men in Koraput, 1.53 lakh women and 1.42 lakh men in Kandhamal, 2.22 lakh men and 2.15 lakh men in Nabarangpur, 2.2 lakh women and 2.1 lakh men in Rayagada have received one dose each.
The gender gap is less in other tribal districts like Nuapada, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Sonepur and Boudh while it is close to the State average in Sundargarh, Kalahandi, Balangir, Keonjhar and Jharsuguda. As many as 11.31 lakh women have been vaccinated as compared to 14.19 lakh men in Khurda and 5.63 lakh women have been inoculated as against 6.84 lakh men in Cuttack district.
However, the gap is wider in districts like Khurda, Cuttack, Angul, Jajpur, Puri, Sambalpur, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara. Director of Family Welfare and nodal officer of COVID vaccination, Dr Bijay Panigrahi said that awareness campaign has been intensified and ASHA and anganwadi workers engaged to tackle vaccine hesitancy among rural women. Total vaccination stands at 2.03 crore till August 19 in Odisha.