The coronavirus has been the biggest news across the world since February 2020. With the implications of the virus on healthcare, business and travel and tourism industry, among many others, this has definitely not been the best year for anyone. People all around the world have been laid off in huge chunks, which in turn has impacted the global economy. This has certainly been a challenging time for every human being global since World War II. That being said, it has explicitly been a major challenging time for women all around the world.
Decades of efforts taken to build a system of gender equality and a system for women’s security have been reversed in just a few months of the pandemic and the consequential disruption in the education system, the largest one in history. Women have been facing so many interrelated issues of this pandemic and it’s difficult to overlook them. There are many issues associated with poverty that disproportionately affects women in cases, such as domestic violence, deprivation of education, child marriage and child labour among many others, due to the inequalities set up by our society.
Women’s equality and visibility are not very encouraging in our country. There has been an evident surge in complaints for crimes against women since the lockdown began in March. The National Commission for Women (NCW) itself received a total of 587 complaints for crime against women between March 23 and April 16 compared to 396 complaints during the 25 days preceding the lockdown. A study determines that there were 32 complaints per one million women in Delhi, making it the state with the highest complaint rate.
Uttar Pradesh recorded a total of 600 complaints about domestic violence till May 2020, the highest among all states. Syawam, a city-based women’s rights organisation in West Bengal, received a total of 1,100 complaints between March and April when compared to a total of 1,000-1,200 cases yearly.
The spike in cases does not mean these are the only cases, many cases go unreported. Studies depict around 57% of the women in India don’t have access to phones, and 75% of women who reported a domestic violence case did not seek help. The stigma revolving around gender equality has much to do with this. The so-called social and cultural norms make men feel like they’re superior beings, which is why 42% of men in India agree that the husband is justified in hitting and beating his wife. Being stuck at home with their jobless husbands/family members has made these women vulnerable to domestic and sexual exploitation.
Education of girls has been one of the issues that have been mostly worked on by governments as well as NGOs over the past few decades. The overall enrolment of girls at all levels increased by 25% points in the five years since 2013. With schools being shut and instruction format shifted to virtual platforms, girls will not be able to benefit from it, as only 16% of females have access to the internet compared to 36% males, according to the National Sample Survey 2017-18 of India.
Studies tell us that the most vulnerable bear the heaviest burdens and due to lockdown, there has been a burden on girls to do household chores and take care of younger siblings. Poverty is another reason for girls to drop out of school. According to The Hindu, as many as 24 million students may drop out of schools this year. Education is interlinked with other issues and impacts many different areas of a girl’s life.
With the massive number of dropouts from school, it will have implications on women’s safety and result in increased cases of child marriages, immature pregnancies, child trafficking and child labour. Studies show that a one percentage point increase in poverty results in a 0.7% increase in child labour in certain countries. Due to deteriorating employment since the lockdown, almost 55%, or four billion, of the people across the globe do not have social protection.
Since the year 2000, as a result of many interventions, practices and efforts by several NGOs and government initiatives, child labour had been brought down by almost 94 million. According to the new data released by UN Women and UNDP, 4.6 crore more women and girls below the poverty line, reversing decades of progress to eradicate extreme poverty.
Because of the pandemic, many families of migrant workers had to go back to their hometown, jobless. This has increased the cases of child marriage.
This pattern isn’t new — after the 2004 tsunami, an increased number of girls were forced to marry tsunami widowers, and after the Ebola crisis, Nepal earthquake and in Bangladesh and Syria, there was an increase in the number of cases of school dropouts and gendered violence.
ChildLine India witnessed an increase of 50% calls for protection from abuse, violence and child marriages and intervened a massive 5,584 calls reporting child marriage during the pandemic.
The states that have so far reported the most number of cases of child marriage during the pandemic are Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, with Karnataka alone accounting for 29% of national interventions. The UNICEF intervened in 183 cases of child marriage in Odisha, 138 in West Bengal, 56 in Jharkhand, 25 in Bihar and 16 in Rajasthan.
However, these numbers are not just about the denial of their basic, lawful and rightful education because of child marriage, these girls also become vulnerable to early pregnancies and sexual violence. The risk depends on a number of factors from place of residence to a family’s financial status and education level of the girls. Rural areas account for 80% of child marriages in 13 states, and the risk reduces with an increase in family’s wealth and education.
The importance and need for women and girl empowerment have been recognised at every level. We are aware that equal rights and equal opportunities are necessary for all genders to live equally and get respect without discrimination and violence. However, a lot of the efforts made worldwide for women’s security and gender equality have been simply reversed back to 10-20 years due to Covid-19.
The above-given facts do not give the complete picture but are sufficient to drag the attention of the government, stakeholders and other key players. The current situation indicates that girls and women are in a more vulnerable situation. It needs efforts at various levels to minimise the effects.
There is an urgent need to study the situation more deeply and understand various aspects of it. It is required to collectivise civil society, stakeholders and the government to brainstorm and come up with a gender mainstreaming strategy and working plan for implementation, and ensure allocation of more resources and funds.