India vaccine program 'focuses on equality' says top 'UN Women' official Anita Bhatia

Assistant-Secretary-General & Deputy Executive Director of UN Women Anita Bhatia has lauded India for its vaccine leadership across the world. Praising India for its selfless efforts to provide vaccines to various nations under the 'Vaccine Maitri' initiative and WHO's COVAX facility, Bhatia said that the countries are making deals with the pharmaceutical companies, however, India has focused on the issue of "vaccine equity" when the world is facing a severe fight against the deadly coronavirus. She added that it felt so good that the country is helping other nations who in need of vaccines.  

"India is directly helping to address the issue of vaccine equity at a time when the world deals with the crippling coronavirus pandemic and rich countries are cutting side deals with pharmaceutical companies to buy more vaccines than they actually need. India is a leader. I'm so proud of my country for this because there are so many people in need of vaccines, said Anita Bhatia in her official statement." 

UN Top official Anita Bhatia lauds India for its vaccine leadership

India has provided a total of 56 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccines from its neighbourhood to Africa. Bhatia said that India is playing a huge role during this pandemic as a leader. She added that India's investment in technology and vaccine development is now coming out as an example of good leadership. She stated "this is India playing its rightful role in the world as a leader on something that we have invested in for decades. And now all of that investment in science, technology and vaccine development is really coming to the fore as a shining example of India's leadership."

Bhatia asserted that it is unfair that the rich countries are kept buying the doses of coronavirus vaccines, however, there are several vulnerable nations that do not have enough supplies. She affirmed, "This is not good. There are a number of rich countries that have negotiated deals and have three or four times the vaccines that they actually need for their population. Yet there are parts of the world that have zero vaccines. No country is an island in itself at this time and India recognises this. It is therefore distributing the vaccine in order to have this vaccine equity."

Anita praises GOI for establishing digital infrastructure before the pandemic

Bhatia also lauded India's pre-pandemic investment in the digital infrastructure. She said that the Indian government was working on establishing the digital infrastructure in the country when no one was thinking about the pandemic. "This is a huge achievement and it really showed the wisdom of India having invested in this digital infrastructure because nobody was thinking about the pandemic while they were doing this investment and yet it has proven absolutely invaluable in terms of getting benefits to people."

(with inputs from PTI)