Why COVID-19 had a worse impact on women in India
A construction worker. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons
The data and discussion on the major damage caused by COVID-19 in India focuses on deaths, infections and vaccinations. While such figures are important, attention needs to be paid to the pandemic’s ongoing, long-term harm on women, especially among the poor.
So far, according to official figures, around 515,000 Indians have died, 43 million have been infected, and 58% of the population has been fully vaccinated. The number of deaths is more than 3 million, according to research by a team from Canada, India and the U.S., published in Science, a prestigious journal. This makes India the country worst hit by the pandemic.
Since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, employed women, whether salaried, daily wage or self-employed, in both urban and rural areas, were seven times more likely than men to lose employment and eleven times more likely not to return to work. The major reasons are the loss of jobs in areas employing women, including health, education, garment and textiles, construction, medium and small businesses and domestic work – cooks, children and elderly care, cleaning and washing clothes and dishes in middle-and-upper-class homes.
A large share of women working in India are employed as domestic workers and in other informal jobs, where they are paid cash wages. The informal jobs range from home-based, semi-skilled work for textile and garment companies to planting, weeding, harvesting and other agricultural jobs, construction, street vendors and waste pickers.
Women in informal jobs, who have no legal protections, face intense pressure to earn an income, especially due to the rise in unemployment of other family members. Hence they are compelled to accept far lower wages and longer hours, with a relatively larger drop in wages compared to men. For instance, some women in cities in the state of Gujarat, employed by families who sought to exploit them, were paid Rs.10 to Rs.15 (14 to 20 U.S. cents) for a10-hour day, a drop of 90%. Worse yet, women were more likely than men to not be paid their wages.
Receiving no or very low wages, more than three out of four families in India could not buy enough food to feed all those in a household. Women, believing they need to eat last and sacrifice for their families, got the least amount of food, often going hungry.
With the loss of income and little, if any, savings -which were almost fully depleted due to the demonetization of large currency notes in 2016 - poor and many middle-class households were forced to pawn or sell their land, livestock, bicycles, watches, mobile phones, cooking utensils and, in the case of women, jewelry. They borrowed money from friends, relatives, self-help groups and at usurious rates from local money lenders, since banks provide no credit to workers in informal jobs, in both rural and urban areas.
Losing their assets and, more important, sources of income such as livestock and sewing machines, most of the borrowers were pushed into poverty, defined as earning less than $2 a day. In 2020 alone, the pandemic pushed more than 75 million Indians into poverty, according to estimates from a Pew Research study. Overall, during the past two years, more than 150 million Indians - about 11% of the country’s population - were likely pauperized by the financial and medical problems triggered by the virus, accounting for about 60% of the global increase in poverty.
During the pandemic, women carried a heavier burden of cooking, cleaning and other unpaid work, due to a sharp decrease in state financial aid and welfare services, such as free meals in schools, as well as due to a rise in the number of family members and relatives living in the house. Also, with schools and hospitals closed, women had to take care of children and the sick.
In March 2020, the announcement of a national lockdown, with just four-hour notice, forced millions of migrants, who lost their jobs in urban areas, to walk back to their villages and small towns. In addition to the transport problems faced by all migrants, many of whom had to travel hundreds of miles, some women were assaulted and raped, during their journey home.
With few resources, women ignored their menstrual health and hygiene. Babies were born on the roads, in autorickshaws, at hospital gates, and on trains. As a result, deaths of mothers and newborn babies increased.
Returning home, married women faced violence from husbands and other family members, who were also dealing with financial and mental stress. Single women faced violence from their fathers, brothers, boyfriends, neighbors and even women relatives. Physically challenged women faced violence from partners and personal care-givers. In fact, the National Commission for Women reported a near tripling of domestic violence cases, reported between February 27 and May 31, 2020.
Women who were widowed by the COVID-19 deaths of their husbands, and children who lost their parents, faced a worse situation than during pre-pandemic times. In addition to social isolation, many of them became homeless after being evicted from their homes.
Orphaned girls were forced to discontinue their school and college education, take up jobs, get married early – including child marriages - and some were trapped by sex traffickers. So widespread was this problem, that in May 2021, the Ministry of Women & Child Development had to issue a warning asking family members not to post messages on social media seeking adoption of children or respond to messages from those wanting to “adopt children.”
There was a big rise in the number of child marriages, even for girls whose parents are still alive. This was due to parents having to pay smaller dowries for younger girls; the groom’s family accepting a smaller dowry as a way to bring in some money; lower costs for the wedding since very few guests could attend; and closure of schools leading to little or no contact with teachers and peers, who may have provided support to resist the pressure to marry.
Amidst the bleak situation across much of India, Kerala was a bright spot. The state has an effective public health system, which used a database to track the incidence and treatment of COVID-19 cases. It also has a decentralized system of governance, with active participation by village level officials, and an educated and informed population which was eager to combat the virus.
In March 2020, Kerala introduced several relief measures: local officials set up camps to quarantine incoming migrant workers; nearly 400,000 meals were distributed every day from community kitchens; every family received a food kit; 5.5 million elderly/disadvantaged people were given Rs.8,500 (US $115) as a one-time welfare payment; and roughly an equal number of workers were each paid Rs.1,000 to Rs. 3,000 ($14 to $41); this payment was monthly in the case of those who were hit hard financially.
Today, middle-and-upper class Indians have returned to socializing, shopping and going to movie theaters, mostly unmasked. The women from poor households are not so fortunate.
*Ritu Dewan, who retired as Professor and Director of the Department of Economics, Bombay University, is a development economist. This is based on her paper Pandemic, Patriarchy and Precarity: Labour, Livelihood & Mobility Rights.
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