In four districts of Rajasthan, more women have been vaccinated than men against Covid-19, according to the data released by the health department. This includes Jhunjhunu from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the national-level ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign in 2018.
Nagaur, Dungarpur and Rajsamand are the other three districts where more women have been vaccinated. In Dungarpur, 47,745 more women received vaccines than men thereby reporting the highest gender difference in vaccinations among these four followed by Jhunjhunu which came second with 36,233 more doses, Nagaur 19,162 and Rajsamand 13,837, respectively.
“We have conducted aggressive awareness campaign in cooperation with district the administration in our district and encouraged women take the jab. This has proved fruitful for us. We used pictures of influential women for the campaign. Also, we roped in female staff who went going door-to-door and persuaded women to get vaccinated,” said Dungarpur’s chief medical health officer (CMHO) Dr Rajesh Sharma.
Jhunjhunu is a district in the Shekhawati region that officially started the campaign for gender equality in 2018, vaccinated 9,28,403 women compared to 8,92,170 men. Also, the district has the lowest child sex ratio at 837 as per Census 2011 in the state.
The sex ratio increased to 944 between 2016-17 and 979 in 2020-21 as compared to April 2015 and March 2016 when it was only 903. The district is observing queues of women in urban and rural areas as well.
“In Jhunjhunu, women are more aware as they are literate. Jhunjhunu is one of the district which has the highest female literacy rates in the state as per Census 2011. Also, it seems that the event organised in Jhunjhunu for pan-India expansion of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ has also made a positive impact among women,” said Rajan Chaudhary, a social activist based in Jhunjhunu, who has played a significant role in saving the girl child by helping the state government in conducting entrap operations to catch those involved in female foeticide and conducting sex determination tests.
“As per the trend here, more women got vaccinated than men in the district. We have encouraged them by reaching out to those living in remote areas. We have taken the help of panchayati raj institutions and public representatives in rural areas to create awareness among women. We strategically planned our vaccination sites to ensure that women got the vaccine doses near their houses,” said Dr Dayanand Singh, reproduction and child health officer, Jhunjhunu.
“Women in Jhunjhunu are more aware about vaccination as they are literate and work in different sectors. These are women serving in the Army, medical, education and other sectors. This has also made a positive impact on women’s vaccination in the district,” Dr Singh said.
