Covid vaccine: 14 of 22 states show imbalance in SC majority districts

In case of STS, 17 of 19 states show imbalance. Lower proportion of fully vaccinated in districts with an ST population higher than state average

By next week, India would have administered 1 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses to its adult population. The country, till October 8, had administered the first dose to 71 per cent of its adult population, and fully vaccinated 28 per cent.

Even though India is set to administer the first dose to its entire population by this year, a Business Standard analysis shows imbalance vaccine administration.

Data till October 5 show that in 14 of the 22 states, areas with higher-than-average scheduled caste (SC) population have been able to fully vaccinate fewer people than districts where the SC population is lower than the state average.

For instance, in Tamil Nadu, the average second-dose vaccination across the state was 14.6 per cent, but districts with more than the state average for SC population (20.7 per cent) had fully vaccinated only 13.8 per cent of the population. Districts with less than average SC population had secured full vaccination for 15.2 per cent.

In West Bengal, districts with a higher proportion of SC population had vaccinated only 13.3 per cent. In contrast, vaccination in districts with less-than-average SC population was 19.9 per cent. In Haryana, there was an imbalance of six percentage points.

Assam, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh were a few of the seven states where areas with more than average SC population had administered more second doses than areas with low SC population.

The imbalance was even higher in case of scheduled tribes (STS), with 17 of the 19 states fully vaccinating fewer people in districts where the ST population was higher than the state average compared with areas where the ST population was lower.

Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh were

the only two states where St-dominated areas administered more second doses.

For the analysis, states closer to 100 per cent vaccination, and Union Territories and states where either the SC or ST population was less than five per cent were not considered.

Although the data do not show any correlation between SC and ST population with full vaccination across most states, three of the five states where the correlation was high showed the trend going against SC majority areas. So, even as the proportion of SCS in districts increased, vaccination reduced in Maharashtra, Haryana and West Bengal. In Kerala, an increase in the SC population led to a rise in the administration of the second dose.

Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat showed a negative correlation concerning the ST population; Andhra Pradesh, on the other hand, showed a positive trend indicating a rise in the second-dose administration as the proportion of scheduled caste population increased.