Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government has rolled back its order to vaccinate sex workers on priority following a severe backlash. In the revised order, it replaced the words "sex workers" with "salon workers" saying there was a "print mistake" in the notice first issued.
The Health and Family Welfare Department had issued a notification on who should be vaccinated on priority. These included petrol pump workers, those running grocery stories, housemaids and sex workers among others.
The state Congress posted this notification on Twitter following which netizens slammed the Madhya Pradesh government as at a time when the country is facing an acute shortage of vaccines against COVID-19, the government had prioritised inoculating sex workers.
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Dr SS Malviya, District Health and Medical Officer of Agar Malwa district said that there was a print mistake in the order and instead of 'salon worker', 'sex worker' was wrongly printed. A revised order was issued later.
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To contain COVID-19 cases, the Madhya Pradesh government prepared a list of the most 'at-risk' groups and had directed the health department to get them vaccinated. In the instructions issued to all the collectors of the state, it has been said that 100 per cent on-site registration based vaccination sessions should be run. This includes vaccination of vendors of fair price shops, cylinders suppliers, petrol pump staff, women working at home, vegetable-vendor vendors, hotel restaurant staff, chemists, bank workers, security guards and sex workers.
However, after the uproar, the Health and Family Welfare Department removed the word 'sex worker' and replaced it with 'salon worker'.
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