Vax: Centre 'accepts' DCPCR tips for pregnant women, lactating mothers

New Delhi: After more than eight months of choosing not to act on recommendations for priority Covid-19 vaccination of pregnant women

and lactating mothers (PW&LM) sent by the Delhi Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, the Union government has now accepted many of the child rights body's suggestions in the Supreme Court.

Significantly, the DCPCR had filed a writ petition in the top court seeking specific measures to research and study the effects of Covid-19 vaccines on PW&LM, proper systems for beneficiaries to identify as pregnant and lactating on the CoWIN website and specific monitoring and reporting of AEFI cases among such beneficiaries.

The child rights body had initially sent a set of detailed recommendations to the Union government on May 12 last year, following which there was no action on the suggestions. After this, the DCPCR, in

an attempt to elicit action on the serious matter, took the Union government to the Supreme Court seeking compliance

with these recommendations, filing a plea on May 18 the same year.

In Wednesday's hearing in the case, the Supreme Court bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna was informed by the Centre that it had accepted "many of the suggestions" made by the DCPCR, following

which the court allowed the Centre to file a detailed affidavit in the matter — listing the case for January 17.

Among the key issues pointed out by the DCPCR was the fact that while the Centre had submitted that it would line-list all pregnant women and lactating mothers getting vaccinated with basic demographic information to monitor after-effects of the dose, the CoWIN app had no mechanism whatsoever for such beneficiaries to identify as one while registering for their shots.