Many parents not yet ready to get their children vaccinated

Several working parents are worried about sending their young, unvaccinated children to school and many are also reluctant to get their eligible children (12 years and above) vaccinated even as nobody wants schools to go back to the online mode.

Many parents whose children are eligible for either Covaxin (15+) or Corbevax (12-14) are still not confident about their efficacy and are stalling the jabs, doctors said.

"There is certainly a perception problem among parents regarding the available vaccines for children," said Sankalp Dudeja, neonatologist and paediatrician at Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research, New Delhi. "Some parents, including CXOs, lawyers, engineers, businessmen, etc. are waiting it out for other vaccines to be rolled out."


Yet, the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in several states, especially Delhi and NCR, has made many working parents jittery. Some plan to take their children abroad to get them vaccinated.

Adarsh Khandelwal, cofounder of edtech startup Collegify, whose 5-year-old daughter goes to Pathways World School, said he is nervous about a sudden surge in Covid-19 cases in Delhi-NCR.

He plans to get his daughter vaccinated in the US or Canada.

Ashish Sanganeria, a senior partner at executive search firm Transearch and father of 6-year-old twin sons, is facing the same dilemma. "I am apprehensive of sending my sons to school or travelling without vaccines. Vaccines help in reducing the risk as we have seen in the past," he said.

But staying away from school has taken a toll on young children.

Doctors including Dudeja and Dhiren Gupta, paediatric pulmonologist at Delhi's Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, told ET that parents of school-going children are coming to them with various concerns including obesity, psychological issues, social issues, Vitamin D deficiency (due to staying indoors), speech delay (among younger children), etc.