Addressing the gender gap in COVID-19 Vaccination in India

India had rolled out the world’s largest vaccination program, marking the beginning of an effort to vaccinate a population of 1.3 billion against COVID-19. There have been recent emerging reports that India’s womenfolk are getting left behind as far as COVID vaccination is concerned. Misinformation, which impacts women more, is a key factor resulting in the prevailing gender gap in vaccination. Issues relating to the ignorance of technology to register for vaccination, lower decision-making power in families over matters related to their health, and lower priority given to women and their health needs within families, etc., are other responsible factors, which need to change for successful implementation of the program. A set of targeted solutions that can help access to affordability and break information barriers are required. The solutions need to be explored in the background of the sustainable development goals, stemming from within the community, within the community, involving women’s self-help groups, volunteers, etc. Addressing mobility challenges faced by women to access vaccination sites and also ensuring dissemination of correct information through their preferred channels is imperative to ensure the success of the program. This is especially true for vulnerable and marginalized populations which continue to bear a disproportionate socio-economic brunt of the pandemic. Effective communication keeping in mind the broad categories of vaccine hesitancy along with targeted effective interventions remains the best bet in the current scenario.