Kriti Agrawal –
The government said in the Supreme Court that tribal areas have higher vaccination coverage than the national norm.
In fact, tribal districts had a higher rate of walk-in vaccinations than the national average.
According to the Health Ministry, the gender ratio of those who were vaccinated was better in tribal districts.
The Ministry informed the Court that, “Ninety-seven out of 176 tribal districts are performing better than the all-India vaccine coverage. According to statistics on June 23, the national average for doses per million population is 2,13,244 while it is 2,19,762 in tribal districts.”
According to the Centre, even in districts with the most difficult and remote terrain, as well as districts with a higher number of tribal people, exceptional vaccination coverage was seen.
86.5% of the Schedule Tribe population in Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, and Tripura received one vaccination dose.
The Ministry of Health was responding to Court concerns that allowing people above the age of 18 to register for vaccine slots on CoWin online would expose the digital divide between urban and rural/tribal areas.
The Centre states, 93,044 out of 1,24,969 vaccination centres on CoWin, are located in rural areas.
