Can the Government discriminate between vaccinated and unvaccinated people?
Can the Government discriminate between vaccinated and unvaccinated people?
- Udbhav Atre, Bharati Vidyapeeth, New Law College, Pune
"Hans mat pagli, pyar ho jayega, teeka lagwa le, corona haar jayega"
(Don\'t laugh, you will fall in love; get a vaccine jab, corona will be defeated)
If you are an Indian and is well acquainted with watching trucks and autos nearby you, you can more easily relate to these slogans. With COVID19 vaccination drive is in its full swing now across all the states of the country, these slogans have become more and more common among the netizens. The main rationale behind using such slogans is to infer a sense of awareness and responsibility among the citizens of the country. Not only this, there are many other slogans which are in limelight nowadays,
Dekho magar pyar se, corona darta hai vaccine ki maar se!
(Look at me, albeit with love; corona is scared of vaccine)
Teeka lagwaoge to baar baar milenge, laparwahi karoge to Haridwar me milenge!
(If you get vaccinated, we will meet again and again; but if you neglect, we will meet at Haridwar)
Main khubsoorat hun, mujhe nazar na lagana; zindagi bhar sath dungi, vaccine jaroor lagwana!
(I am beautiful, don\'t cast an evil eye on me; I will be with you forever if you go for vaccination.)
To be vaccinated or not to be vaccinated?
Now with the availability of vaccines and large number of awareness programs, there still lies a question in the minds of people,
To be vaccinated or not to be vaccinated?
This is the question dominating the minds of many people as the COVID-19 immunization continues to roll out in the country. For some, it is an easy decision — whenever they are eligible they’ll get the jab, but for others, the decision is rather more complicated. Some have a profound uneasiness about getting the vaccine, this may be because of their fear of injections, due to some profound disabilities and diseases and some other thinking that they don’t need a vaccine since they hold quite a good immunity.
For such people who are unsure and are not taking vaccine, the government has decided, to give away certain advantages to the vaccinated people as compared to that of the unvaccinated one’s.
This is done with the view of forcing more and more people to take the vaccination jab. The advantages includes easing of travel restrictions, allowing the vaccinated people to sit and eat in the restaurants, opening of shops ( especially in the state of Madhya Pradesh where the Chief Minister, Hon’ble Shivraj Singh Chauhan, has directly issued notice, that only those shopkeepers are allowed to open their shops who had taken the vaccine shots).
This discrimination between the vaccinated and unvaccinated is not only limited to this, even the employers are now making certain rules that only the vaccinated people are allowed to resume their inoffice works.
Can such discrimination be held valid?
Well with such type of discriminations rolling across the world, there are large group of people which are aggrieved with these discriminations and want a change in the law.
The main reasoning given by them when asked about, is that, not all people are unwilling to take the vaccine, there are still some people who are willing to take the vaccine but because of the circumstances and the restrictions imposed on them, they are not able to take the jabs.
Following are the group of people who are not able to take the vaccine due to circumstantial or the restrictional issues;
People with disabilities,
Pregnant women (though they are now allowed to take the vaccines),
Persons with some prolonged illness and are advised by their doctors not to take the shots,
Because of unavailability of vaccines.
These are the group of people who have done no harm but still are discriminated on the basis of vaccinated and unvaccinated. To counter this issue and relieve these persons from discrimination various countries have started preparing bills and drafts.
Ohio is one such state of the United States which has prepared the bill to build legal protections for people who decline vaccinations.
Under the bill, governments, schools and private businesses could still impose a vaccine requirement. However, the bill would force them to exempt anyone who submits verbally or in writing a claim of medical contraindication, or “reasons of conscience.” Therefore, bill is specifically only for the above groups of persons we talked about.
Apart from this, various petitions are also being filed in the United Kingdom expressing discontent from such discrimination. In one such petition there had been 3,00,000 signatures by the time of writing this blog (the link to this petition is mentioned in the references.)
The Indian Scenario :-
Where these countries are more worried about laws tackling these discriminations, what people in India are more worried about is,
The different price discrimination that 2 vaccine manufacturers quoted to the government and the individuals. Though this came to a standstill when the Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that all the individuals of the country will get free jabs and all the cost will be borne by the central government, though individuals still have an option of getting paid vaccination shots at the private hospitals.
Is government right in doing such discrimination or can the government discriminate?
If we see on a wider scenario, the answer would be yes. The government in its capacity is exactly doing what it should be doing. With opening of lockdowns and easing of restrictions it is now the government’s duty, to stop the upcoming waves and control the situation and the pandemic. In this regard if we see, such discriminations are essentially important to be imposed. People are not at all taking the pandemic seriously in India and that’s the big reason behind such large number of active cases and deaths reported in India. Also there are large number of people in India who believes in superstitions and for them taking vaccination is just so wrong. I personally interviewed few people from a small village in Bihar, and asked their views on taking the jabs, and what I received in response, completely shocked me.
They told me there’s nothing like corona in their village. There’s a belief in their village that those who drink ‘gaumutra’ regularly, nothing can take their lives not even the corona, and more importantly the vaccine is the one taking the lives of the people and not the corona, and when I tried to explain them vaccine is completely safe, in return they termed me as a ‘padha likha gawar’ who hails from the capital city of Madhya Pradesh and went on to study law in Pune, and now this, ‘padha likha gawar’ is teaching them how to live their lives in their own village. Such is the condition of our country and thus when we hear about such discriminations being imposed on such people, we find it just and apt.
Conclusion :-
There’s no harm in imposing such discriminations, as these discriminations will only force them to take the vaccine. Well what the government can do is that it can take the steps like the state of OHIO has taken in US to protect those people from such discrimination who have their genuine reasons and scenarios of not taking the vaccine. Because on their part they are not doing anything wrong and thus their exemption from these discriminations is must in order to protect their human rights.
COVID is not only about saving our own lives, it is also about saving the lives of others. Therefore it becomes the responsibility of each and every person to not only care about their lives but also think about the lives of others. One person can infect around 12-14 persons at a time and thus the risk will be more when the percentage of the unvaccinated people will be more. According to a recent report of WHO, India holds the largest number of unvaccinated people in the world and this is something really terrifying.
Thus, in order to protect other people and their lives imposing of such discrimination is quite justified.
It’s not about Me or You, it’s about Us and we all are in this together,
So stop blaming and questioning the government and rather question yourself and take the vaccine as soon as possible, because,
Jaan hai to Jahan hai
(If there’s a life, there’s a world).
References :-
Jake Zuckerman, ‘Bill would prevent discrimination against unvaccinated people’ (2021)
OCJ https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2021/04/07/bill-would-prevent-discrimination-against-unvaccinated-people/
Petition, ‘Outlaw discrimination against those who do not get a Covid-19 vaccination’ (2021)
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/575801
Bernard O\'Shea, ‘Vaccine passports or discrimination licenses?’
(Norton Rose Fulbright, April 2021) https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en-in/knowledge/publications/d55ab991/vaccine-passports-or-discrimination-licences
Kayum Ahmed, ‘The Human Right to Vaccines: Preventing Discrimination Against the Unvaccinated’ (15 February 2021)
HHR https://www.hhrjournal.org/2021/02/the-human-right-to-vaccines-preventing-discrimination-against-the-unvaccinated/
Times of India, (2 May 2021) https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/plea-against-vaccine-discrimination-faced-by-people-below-45-filed-in-hc/articleshow/82347687.cms
Todd J. Horn, Robin L.S. Burroughs, Emily M. Tortora, ‘Vaccination Discrimination: A New Shot at Employer Liability’ ( Venable LLP, 12 April 2021) https://www.venable.com/insights/publications/2021/04/vaccination-discrimination-a-new-shot-at-employ
