Compass Gender: Gender, Caste, and COVID-19 in India
COVID-19 has profoundly affected women, girls, and members of marginalized communities in India. (Wikimedia Commons)
CW: domestic violence, child marriage
As vaccine access readily expands in the United States and its residents grow hopeful for a return to a new normal, the pandemic has continued to devastate communities in the Global South. India has become the new epicenter of the virus, as hospitals and clinics struggle to supply enough beds and supplies to treat the surge of critical patients. The country officially reached 200,000 deaths on April 28, and even this milestone underestimates the extent of the outbreak.
While the pandemic itself has affected all genders, measures taken to combat the spread have disproportionately hurt women—especially those from marginalized backgrounds—across India.
Locked out of the Labor Force
In initial efforts to curb the virus, India instituted a nationwide lockdown on March 24, 2020, which was ultimately extended until May 31, 2020. Strict enforcement of this lockdown, as well as restrictions on travel, severely harmed the informal sector of the economy, which employs 90 percent of women in the country in jobs including domestic work, street vendors, and home-based workers.
As men—especially male migrant workers—also lost their jobs throughout lockdowns and have returned to their homes to find work, fierce competition for local jobs due to the influx of job-seekers has also resulted in continued unemployment for women. The need to balance domestic work (especially as schools and other childcare centers close) with paid work has also contributed to overwork among women and has forced many to quit their jobs. All of this has led to the urban Female Labor Participation Rate, which was already low at about 9.7 percent before the pandemic, dropping to 7.35 percent in April of 2020 and 7.2 percent in October.
Durga Devi, a 38-year-old woman and mother of three children who works in domestic help for three upper-middle-class families in New Delhi, lost her three jobs as soon as the lockdown was announced. She told IndiaSpend, “I was working at these homes for over a decade, earning a total Rs 9,000 ($120), and suddenly it was over. I was not paid any salary during the lockdown.” Though Devi was able to return to work after six months, she had to balance her jobs working for other families with cooking, cleaning, and childcare for her own.
India has become the world leader in new COVID-19 cases in recent weeks. (Wikimedia Commons)
With disproportionate amounts of women out of work and inadequately supported by stimulus packages, which on top of being insufficient to cover living expenses denied to many due to lack of ID), the pandemic has forced many women to deplete already low savings, go into debt, and sell assets such as small animals and sewing machines. Because many women rely on these assets as a source of income both before and after the pandemic, experts worry that the pandemic could force millions into deepening, longer-term poverty.
Domestic Violence and Child Marriage
Data from the National Commission for Women states that domestic violence complaints doubled after the imposed lockdown, with the Tamil Nadu police reporting an increase from 25 to 40 daily complaints, and the Bangalore police reporting an increase from 10 to 25. However, a handful of organizations have also reported that they received fewer reports than in the pre-pandemic day; however, the National Institute of Health suggests that this could be due to “confinement at home, constant monitoring… and controlling decision-making by the abuser, social isolation of victims from friends and family members… and reduced options for support.”
As the pandemic continues, younger women—especially teenage girls—are also significantly more vulnerable to child marriage. The victim’s parents are often unable to continue to take care of their children for reasons such as death or prolonged illness from COVID-19, or loss of income. According to Goranbose Gram Bikas Kendra, an NGO that fights child marriage on Sagar Island, reports of child marriage have increased from approximately four to five every month to eight to ten. Girls ages 13-16 are often the most vulnerable, as schools have closed and families struggle to make ends meet.
Rani Khatun, a 17-year-old girl from Sagar Island who had hoped to become a teacher, was one of many girls who was forced to drop out of school during the pandemic. Facing financial distress due to the pandemic, her family married her off, only for her to return in a month after her husband and in-laws allegedly assaulted her. “We thought by marrying off our daughter, we would have one person less to feed,” Khatun’s mother told Al Jazeera.
Caste Disparities
Significant portions of workers most affected by the pandemic come from lower castes, as well as Indigenous communities, which are referred to as Scheduled Tribes in India. Many of the jobs relegated to lower-caste and Indigenous workers, especially those in cleaning and working at funeral pyres, have further exposed them to the virus and put them in more danger.
Ashu Rai, a crematorium worker in New Delhi, told Vice News, “In the past week, our workload has increased drastically… I used to cremate three to five bodies every day before the pandemic, but after this second wave, I am cremating more than 15 bodies a day alone.”
Lower castes have been further ostracized as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, openly blamed migrant workers—adding that the majority were Dalit, the lowest caste—for spreading the virus. As these groups, and especially women, disproportionately faced harassment and humiliation before the pandemic, these widespread sentiments only further endanger already marginalized groups of people across the country.
"We are lesser humans. We clean and wash the entire ward. When patients soil their clothes, we clean them up. All for 8,500 rupees ($115) a month. And now we are further at risk of disease as we have no protection gear when we touch and clean all the waste," said Vanita Bhaskar Salvi, a sanitation worker for a Mumbai hospital, to CNN.
With India continuing to report around 350,000 cases daily, it is clear that beyond the crisis of the pandemic, the country will face further challenges in the disparities faced by women, children, and marginalized groups in the pandemic response.
Resources and fundraisers for COVID-19 response in India: