By Dr Vanishree Joseph, Dr N V Madhuri Several measures have been taken in India for the deprived to recover from the impact created by the Covid-19 pandemic. As per the IMF staff estimates, these measures sum to about 0.6% of the GDP. This estimated amount is being used to spend in providing insurance coverage […]
By Dr Vanishree Joseph, Dr N V Madhuri
Several measures have been taken in India for the deprived to recover from the impact created by the Covid-19 pandemic. As per the IMF staff estimates, these measures sum to about 0.6% of the GDP. This estimated amount is being used to spend in providing insurance coverage for workers in the health sector, cash transfers, wage support to poor households and substantial cash-and in-kind provisions like food, cooking gas to name a few.
In addition to this, Rs 15,000 crore has been earmarked for Covid-19 testing facilities, personal protective equipment, isolation beds, ICU beds and ventilators. Further, to ease the taxpayers’ burden in the pandemic period, extension of income tax filing and GST tax liability deadline were made along with the reduction of penalty for late payments but, without any relaxation in the taxing percentage.
Care Economy
Whether all these spending and revenue measures have created an equal opportunity in the lives of men and women should be taken into account. Studies on disaster management and mitigation have shown that unless gender-responsive economic and social policies form part of the response and recovery plans, building equal, inclusive and sustainable economies and societies will not be possible. This commentary will explore whether spending and revenue measures taken in India in the context of Covid-19 are gender-neutral or gender-responsive.
Of the total reported Covid-19 cases in India, 35% of them are women whereas the proportion of death in the confirmed cases for male is 2.62% and for female, it is 3.07%. The possibility of neglecting women’s share in availing health services is always high because of multiple and intersecting inequalities. Access to health services and information about Covid-19 is not equally available to men and women; boys and girls; and transgender. A slightly higher death proportion for female may also indicate the difference in the utility of healthcare facilities by both men and women. The care economy which thrives on women’s labour fails to include women in its ambit of health service.
Women Health Workers
Women constitute about 70% of the workforce in the sector, mostly frontline health workers like nurses, auxiliary nurse midwives, community health workers and sanitary workers. In India, community health workers like ASHA are considered as volunteers rather than employees (Reference). They have limited access to social protection and safety net too. The occupational hazard in this sector is more, and women during a pandemic can succumb to it easily.
The spending measures by the government for insurance packages to all these underpaid health workers are not clear. Neither they are included in the decision-making process on the response to Covid-19. The availability of sex-disaggregated data in the health sector have not been made use of while designing the economic measures during this pandemic.
Social assistance to other deprived categories in the form of non-contributory money transfers is widely used by many States. For these interventions, sex-disaggregated data should be analysed and women should be adequately included. A large number of elderly people, particularly women with co-morbidities, in India are here but there is a lack of data available on the proportion with long-term care needs. There is also no organised care system in the country and the existing system thrives on support from the community with families being the primary provider of care services by means of the involvement of women. There is no policy or government guideline or financial support for the long-term care needs and unpaid carers.
In sectors where women work in large proportion, for women in supply chain and micro and small enterprises, access to credit facilities should be made available. Retaining female workforce participation in this pandemic scenario will be also quite challenging to the already declining rate of female labour force. Most of the initiatives taken are on an ad hoc basis and this is not going to challenge the existing gender relations.
Women’s Welfare
At the international level, financial institutions which might fund India for economic recovery may impose fiscal discipline. This should not affect measures taken for women’s welfare. Research in Latin American countries has shown how the adjustment and austerity policies implemented in that region have adversely and disproportionally affected women’s rights. Those policies have affected women in domestic and care work and made them vulnerable. Evidence from the global financial crisis has also proved that support measures were provided to large infrastructure projects that mainly employed men, while jobs were cut in teaching, nursing and public services, all female-intensive sectors.
Spending and revenue measures to support in response to Covid-19 need to go beyond ad hoc social assistance programmes and merely extending taxing deadlines. The pandemic has affected the sector where women dominate in terms of numbers without any decision making opportunity. The responses to Covid-19 are often gender-neutral without responding to the needs of women, girls and other gender. The measures are so flat and need retrospection to make it transformative. Centralisation of these measures by the Centre and State may not yield the desired outcome. Local governing institutions and in the rural area Panchayati Raj institutions have a significant role to play in taking measures that are gender-responsive.
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