Kerala upends national trend, vaccinates more women than men  

Kerala once again has stood apart among Indian states by vaccinating around 17 per cent more women than men, going against the national trend of reverse gender gap (more men vaccinated than women) of about 11 per cent, as of May 25, shows data.

Apart from the southern state, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka have shown a reverse trend where more women have been vaccinated than men. These states have vaccinated 4.5 per cent, 2.1 per cent and 3 per cent more women than men, respectively.

In Kerala, all 14 districts have reported more vaccination among women than in men. Ernakulam that has the highest difference between male and female vaccinations has inoculated 3.42 lakh men against 4.10 women in the last four months. In simple terms, it has vaccinated about 19.77 per cent more women than men.

A total of 139 out of 755 districts (a few of the districts have been bifurcated into two for administrative purposes like Bengaluru Rural and Urban) have reported a higher vaccination trend among women. These include districts from 18 states. Four out of seven sister states in the Northeast also show a dominance of women in the vaccination drive. These states are Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Mizoram.

Out of the top 10 districts that have reported more vaccination in women, nine are from Kerala while only one district (Mysore) is from Karnataka. The districts from Kerala include Ernakulam, Thrissur, Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Kollam, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, Kannur and Palakkad among the top 10.When we look at the reverse gender gap (more men vaccinated against women), Nagaland tops the list among all the states with a gap of about 16.9 per cent. It is followed by Delhi (15.7 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (13.6 per cent).

A total of 11 states and union territories have more than 10 per cent gender gap where more men have been vaccinated compared to women.When it comes to the third gender, India has vaccinated a total of 23,126 transgenders as of May 25, according to the data. Uttar Pradesh has vaccinated the highest 2,781 trans-gender individuals followed by Maharashtra (2,284) and Rajasthan (2,002 individuals). Eight states have reported vaccination of more than a thousand transgender persons.

Source: COVID-19 India, Ministry of Health