Tech savvy Indians drive to villages for Covid-19 vaccinations. Those without smartphones lose out

It has been more than two weeks since the Central government rolled out the fourth phase of vaccinations making those between 18 to 45 years eligible for the jab. Yet, 38-year old Izhar Ahmad has still not been able to get a vaccine or even a slot for that matter.

“I do not have that kind of a mobile phone,” said Ahmad, referring to a smartphone that would allow him to use the internet to register online. Ahmad works as an assistant in a private firm in Faridabad in Haryana and lives in Jagdamba Camp, a slum cluster in South Delhi.

“Even if I have the phone, I do not know how to do it [register],” he said. “If I ask someone to do it, they say that my slot will come 40 km away.”

Ahmad is among the many who have been unable to access the vaccine because of a digital divide. On May 1, in the middle of a brutal second wave of infections, India opened up vaccinations for those between 18 and 45 years. But unlike the walk-in facility for those above 45 years, the Centre made it mandatory for each beneficiary below 45 years to first register on CoWin, its…

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