Mobility, dependency hinder women’s access to Covid jabs

As the province battles its fourth and most rapid pandemic wave, the government’s anti-coronavirus campaign appears to have fallen short in its efforts to reach all segments of society.

Stay-at-home women from middle and low-income neighborhoods are less likely to be vaccinated against the coronavirus due to various factors like lack of mobility and information and dependency. The vaccination is common, however, among women with relatively better access to mobility, financial independence, education. Working women also have the added pressure, or legitimacy, as the government has made Covid vaccinations mandatory and most employers have followed suit.

In view of this, social rights activists have called on the Sindh government to launch awareness campaigns to bring housewives into the fold.

“The government needs to involve community elders and other stakeholders including scholars, political and religious leaders to reduce vaccine hesitancy in target areas and motivate stay-at-home women to step out for their jabs,” opined Manal, a women’s rights activist and student of social sciences.

Sindh Information Minister Saeed Ghani said that a door-to-door vaccination drive for women will soon be launched with the help of lady health workers.

Anis Imran, who is senior staff nurse at a local vaccination centre, said that far and few stay-at-home women from middle and lower-class backgrounds visit the vaccination centre. “Part of this could be due to vaccine hesitancy, but another major reason is that if their fathers, husbands or brothers decide not to get vaccinated, the women also lose access to immunisation,” said Imran.

Read More: Door-to-door vaccination drive launched in K-P

Stay-at-home women are typically permitted little access to their outside world.

“We mostly stay at home and seldom go out anyway, so in our community there is this widespread belief that housewives don’t really need to be vaccinated,” said Zarina Khan, a middle class housewife.

Similarly, social worker Jannat Gul said there was higher vaccine hesitancy among woman hailing from tribal communities and settled in Keamari, Sohrab Goth, Ittehad Town and other areas on the outskirts of the city. “Elders in these communities do not believe in the existence of the coronavirus, so they spread misinformation about the drug. Owing to this, women in such communities are led to believe that getting the vaccine will cause them medical harm,” she told.

PPP MPA Sadia Javed said that the inclusion of lady health workers, as proposed by Ghani, was paramount to any campaign directed towards women.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18^th, 2021.