The novel coronavirus opened the pandora’s box for the world, unleashing innumerable troubles. While coronavirus’ impact on industry, business and people have been part of detailed discussion and subjected to recovery plans, its impact on women and adverse effect on gender equality, seems to have slipped through the cracks. Financial instability, lack of access to healthcare, and mental stress, the virus has affected women across countries and across all age groups.

According to a recent study, Quantifying the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender equality, published by The Lancet and funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, women reported higher rates of employment loss, school dropouts and perception of an increase in gender-based violence compared to men till September 2021 as an indirect result of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the study, 26% of women reported employment loss compared to 20% of men and were 1.21 times more likely to leave education than men and 1.23 times more likely to report an increase in gender-based violence compared to men.

The story is no different in India. The coronavirus pandemic is not only making it harder to achieve gender equality in the country, but also reversing gains made so far. In developed countries, the division between employed (working for wages) and out of the labour force (not working for wages and not looking for work) is clearly demarcated. However, in India, several women who get counted as “not working” actually contribute substantially to household economic activities (farming, livestock, kirana shops, workshops etc.): work that is unrecognised and unpaid. 

COVID-19 has made the Indian road towards gender equality rockier than it already was. Reports show that from employment and wages to vaccinations, Indian women are disproportionately bearing the brunt of the pandemic. Women in India do not have the same access to healthcare, education and jobs in comparison to their male counterparts. The pandemic has had catastrophic effects on microenterprises; according to India’s sixth economic census, published by the MInistry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in the year 2016, 13.8 % of microenterprises in India are owned by women. Most of these businesses are self-financed and are operational in sectors like beauty, education, tourism, food, retail etc and these sectors have been pillaged by the pandemic induced lockdowns. India ranks 112th out of the 153 countries mapped in the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Gender Gap Index, that uses the pre-pandemic data. For a country that has women as 48% of its population, they contribute only 18% to the country’s economic output. The figures are upsetting and distressing. 

Pandemics are tumultuous in nature due to the associated uncertainty and ambiguity it brings along. With lockdown regulations and restricted movements, women around the country, especially in abusive households were forced to battle male aggressor at home and the virus outside. The National Commission of Women (NCW) in India received 13,410 complaints of crimes against women between March – September 2020, of which 4,350 were domestic violence. Around 727 of these complaints were made on the NCW Whatsapp helpline. The number of cases in this period was the highest in the past 10 years. 

Most existing gender disparity studies have focused on the direct health impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, and very few studies have examined how gender inequalities have been affected by the indirect health, social, and economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic systematically and in detail across geographies. The recent study by The Lancet, suggests that Covid-19 has tended to exacerbate previously existing social and economic disparities rather than create new inequalities. 

As we chart a path for economic recovery, we are at a pivotal moment where investment in the empowerment of women and girls is critically needed to ensure that progress towards gender equality does not get stalled or reversed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, or other pandemics in the future. We cannot carry forward the social and economic fallouts of the pandemic into the post-Covid era. The threat is real and the thematic debate on gender equality cannot continue anymore just on papers, it has to convert into actions that set into motion a holistic, comprehensive and inclusive recovery path for India.