Corona Virus has left us hopeless and alone in the middle of a deep-sea! In the interim of working hard to control and improve the covid-19 active cases and the total death, India should also pay attention to the severe conditions of women in India. It should equally work towards the one who makes the society - Women!
With the rising cases, the burden on women of India is also increasing rapidly leaving all of us clueless!
Let's learn more about this scenario in the sections below.
Statistics
- The poverty based on the gender gap between Men and Women is expected to get awful by the year 2030.
- As per the data from the Ebola epidemic, the women due to the obliging pandemic will either leave the labor force completely or will stay in the unemployed situation for a long period.
- In the last five decades, the involvement of women in the labor force showed a big decline in the period of 2017 to 2018.
- Overall, as data states - The employment of women is more at risk in comparison to men by 19%.
How corona has increased the burden for women in India?
Corona has hit the lives of people severely! Not to be shocked, women hold a greater percentage of suffering from gender biases and multiple other constraints. Various other impacts of corona virus and the lockdown on the women of India have been mentioned below -
INCREASE IN DOMESTIC TASKS
Women never ask for compensation for the free domestic service she provides! Imagine if she starts asking for the same? I'm pretty much sure...she will be a billionaire by then! Henceforth, respect must be given to her as a complimentary gift.
Highlights
According to the survey conducted in 2020, the household responsibility of women has increased by almost 30%. It is because of the lockdown due to which children, and her spouse or other family members spent their time at home.
Women spend nearly 5 hours on domestic work on an average daily, said by the Time Use survey 2019.
Men spent only 30 minutes on average for domestic work daily, said by the Time Use survey 2019.
INCREASE IN DIGITAL GENDER BIASEDNESS
Whether it's women's health or education, they have faced huge gender biases from the day this lockdown has started.
Highlights
Mobile cell phones owned by Women of India stand at 63%. Whereas for the Men, the percentage is almost 79%.
Women are at a higher risk of losing the race because of their limited access to the internet in India. Due to this, they aren't able to update their skills and stay ahead of the competition especially when everything is locked down and accessibility is possible only by the digital media.
The internet is used by only 21% of women. Whereas, internet usage among men stands at 42%.
HUGE JOB LOSSES
Women have been suffering in and out especially in terms of getting fired and losing their jobs with no second alternative to earn money.
Highlights
As stated by the data, more than 15.4 million women ended up losing their current jobs from March 2020 till April 2020.
The women labor forces were minimized by almost 10.5% as well as for Men, the number is only 2% between October 2019 to October 2020.
As far as informal sectors are concerned, Men will be preferred for employment whenever the economy is back on track. Here as well women have suffered massively.
The job losses for Men stand at 28% while for women the number is a bit higher I.e, 37%.
INTENSIFIED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Women had been under a big trap of domestic violence and threatening activities. Being the victims of such nonsense and heartbreaking incidents, the lockdown age proved to be highly troublemaker for them.
Staying in isolation with the abusers & other alcoholic nuts has increased the danger for women to suffer from domestic violence.
Highlights
Domestic violence amongst women has increased by almost 10 fold.
Districts having the strict guidelines for lockdowns meant for their resident folks witnessed the higher number of domestic violence cases which is extremely shameful.
As per one of the studies held in the year May 2020, domestic violence overall showed an unexpected increase of 131% which is huge. Coming in contact with the abusers and drug addicts has made the condition even worse.
Couples who were not on the good terms of their relationship before the lockdown periods also showed a high range of arguments and domestic violence for no adherence to the order given by their husbands.
Mobility Restrictions Imposed on Women
Visiting markets all by herself was restricted even before lock downs. With the lockdown extensions, women need extremely good reasons to leave home all by themselves.
Highlights
As per the National Family and Health Survey which took place between 2015 to 2016, only 48% of women were permitted to go out of their villages or communities.
Before lockdown, only 54% of women's strength was allowed to take a market tour to buy the necessary stuff.
What steps have been taken up by the government to help women amidst Covid-19?
Numerous efforts have been made by the government and its parties to help women cope up with this covid-19 pandemic. All of them are listed below -
Distribution of the free gains for example wheat, rice, etc was held for more than 800 million-plus folks who had the pre-issued ration cards.
As a part of this initiative, the government distributed the cash on the respective accounts of females which has tremendously helped them to survive in the chaos and problematic times. As per the data, more than 200 million females who had their accounts open in any of the banks received the money directly into their accounts between April 2020 to June 2020.
The lending limits made a shift to 2 million INR I.e., $13,000 to $26,000 from 1 million INR which were Collateral-free. The main motive behind this was to be a supporting hand for almost 6.3 million self-organized groups of women meant for self-help.
As per the data, a minimum of 1 quantity of free gas cylinders was made available for more than 75 million residential areas.
In between April 2020 to October 2020, more than 108 million people were employed by the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Program. It also provided help to women by allocating the ⅓ of the overall reservations fixed for them only.
Final Words
Women contribute to a major place in society! Inequality and irrational behavior towards them would lead to affecting not only women but various aspects of society. More policies apart from being existing ones should come into the picture to help women living peacefully leading to overall Indian development. Not only for Covid-19 but post this pandemic too - Women should be given multiple rights to live a life according to their norms and not what society has taught them! Women should also be given the authority to be role models and important members in the decision-making process.
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