Introduction: While the corona virus gradually spread over parts of China, all countries prepared for a problem that no one had expected. However, shortly after the corona virus struck Italy, Spain, and the United States, the virus spread to India, and India was placed on complete lockdown for many days, much to our delight. There was unease, fear, and uncertainty among the public and companies when this pandemic arrived with various novel titles, such as lockdown and quarantine, to a population of 1.2 billion Indians. As a result, the government has implemented a number of daring changes and steps in order to save lives while maintaining the country’s economy. The Prime Minister’s campaign for SELF-RELIANCE was hailed by every Indian among these reforms. We are not strangers to the concept of self-reliance, but adopting it as our ideology is a long-term strategy for the country.
Are women and girls at more risk of contracting COVID-19 than men?: The coronavirus has infected over 30 million people in India. COVID-19 is a virus that can infect humans of all sexes and ages. Some women and girls, on the other hand, may be at greater risk because they are disadvantaged and lack information and resources, or because they work in the health and service sectors as caretakers and labourers.
In India, women account for a large percentage of all healthcare workers, including more than 80% of nurses and midwives. However, ladies are mostly absent from decision-making jobs in the health sector, and females are paid far less than their male counterparts. Women make up only 13% of the COVID-19 task force at the national level.
Women in India may be more exposed to the virus because they spend more time caring for children, the elderly, and sick family members, while masks and other personal protection equipment are frequently designed and sized for men.
There is also worry that in India, fewer women are getting vaccinated than males – 17 percent more men have been partially or fully vaccinated than women, and according to national data, only two states have more women taking the vaccine. Women may be unable to enrol for immunisation because they have limited access to the internet or smart phones. Due to patriarchal customs, women may find it difficult to travel to vaccination centres alone, and male family members may be given priority in getting vaccinated. Vaccines are also thought to be harmful to women’s fertility.
How has COVID-19 impacted women’s employment in India?: Women have been pushed out of work and into poverty as a result of wage disparities and the responsibility of unpaid care. Even before the pandemic, women’s earning income in India was just one-fifth that of men’s. During COVID-19, more women have lost jobs around the world, including in India. According to a recent analysis by the Center for Sustainable Employment at Azim Premji University in India, only 7% of men lost their employment during the first lockdown in 2020, compared to 47% of women who lost their jobs and did not return to work by the end of the year. Women did even worse in the informal sector.
In addition, Indian women spend more time at home doing unpaid domestic tasks than men. They spend 9.8 times more time on unpaid domestic duties and 4.5 hours a day caring for children, the elderly, and the sick on average than men. During the pandemic, their proportion of unpaid care work increased by approximately 30%.
Unless policies and actions specifically target and invest in women, the socioeconomic toll on women and girls has long-term implications. There’s a chance that women’s flight from the labour will become permanent, undoing not only gender equality but also GDP gains. According to UN Women data [1,] more girls than boys were left out of school during the epidemic, and 66% of parents surveyed were unwilling to continue their daughters’ education, instead opting for child marriages to save money. This has the potential to leave an entire generation of young women without access to school or jobs.
Has COVID-19 increased violence against women in India?: Domestic violence rates soared over the world as a result of the COVID-19 lockdowns, which imprisoned women at home with their abusers. Domestic violence, child marriage, cyber violence, and women and girl trafficking were all on the rise in India during the first few months of the pandemic. Domestic abuse in India increased 2.5 times between February and May 2020, according to data from the National Commission for Women. Domestic violence reports were higher in the first four phases of the lockdown than they had been in the previous ten years for a similar length of time, according to several women’s organisations. Others claimed that many women were unable to disclose the violence because they lacked the privacy and resources to seek assistance.
Domestic abuse shelter and support facilities have been categorised as “vital” by the Indian government, marking a significant step forward in the COVID-19 response. In India, 700 One-Stop-Crisis centres stayed open during the first and second waves of the pandemic, assisting over 300,000 women who had been abused and required shelter, legal assistance, and medical attention.
Another positive step is the current draught of the anti-trafficking bill, which will be submitted in Parliament soon and will strengthen punishments for criminals and make reporting of such crimes mandatory.
Should those who have recovered from COVID-19 not get vaccinated?: As of July 19, 2021, India had fully immunised 6.2 percent of its population, and 17 percent had gotten at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. The immunisation rate, on the other hand, has been falling and is now hovering around 4 million shots per day.
People who have recovered from COVID-19 can still become infected, according to leading health organisations around the world. There isn’t enough information to say whether or not a body’s natural immunity established after surviving an illness will last or defend against other varieties, or how long it will remain. Vaccination is still recommended for persons who have recovered from COVID-19.
Vaccination may help keep patients from becoming extremely ill with the virus, including the highly virulent strains.
How can we support women and girls in India during the COVID-19 crisis?: Because of existing gender norms and inequities, every crisis affects women and girls differently than it does men. To recover from the COVID-19 crisis in a better and more equal way, policy, investment, and action must be shaped by and targeted at women and girls.
On the ground, UN Women is collaborating with the government and grassroots organisations to deliver food, personal protection equipment, and cash aid to women.
We ensure that women receive verifiable information regarding illness prevention and vaccination through our communications initiatives, as well as raising public awareness of gender-based violence. Through our programmes, we are providing women with access to education and vocational training via digital and remote learning, as well as assisting them in finding work and starting small companies. In COVID-safe spaces, we collaborate with our national partners to give survivors of gender-based violence with shelter, financial and legal aid, and medical assistance.
UN Women is urging the government and private sector allies to engage in the formal and informal care economies in order to create long-term jobs and increase women’s economic empowerment.
Fast-Tracking Self-Reliant Economy Through Innovations: A tree’s roots must become stronger in order for it to support the weight of the larger branches as they are spread out. Similarly, India’s bottom-of-pyramid economy must be strengthened in order for the country to become self-sufficient. This strengthening of the lower-pyramid population can be accomplished by providing them with greater income, either through jobs or entrepreneurial opportunities, and therefore enabling them to become self-sufficient.
One widespread belief in the innovation community is that, despite the fact that innovators are creating new services, they are still unable to penetrate the client base due to a low acceptance rate inside the community. When we presented the list of solutions for preventing corona virus infection to state and local government officials, Garuda Aerospace, a Chennai-based drone firm, was chosen to sanitise the Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh.
