COVID-19 Pandemic and Gender Inequality
No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contribution of half of its citizens’ -Michelle Obama.
Gender inequality is experienced by a majority of girls and women, irrespective of their family background, age, religion or location. Moreover, gender inequalities are experienced at home, in schools and in workplaces. The problem of gender inequality became more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. But if gender inequality has always existed, why is my emphasis on this issue during the pandemic? Let’s go back a little, how did all this start? Who decided that females are inferior to males? Gender inequality started exhibiting around 8,000 years ago! It was first observed in stone age, when men were depicted as the stronger sex and they use to go out for killing animals and hunting for food. Women on the other hand were considered to be more caring and took care of children. Gender inequality exhibited itself in many forms after that also and there have been many instances in the course of history where women were given away as a prize or trophy for winning battles. However, what astonishes me the most is that even in this day and age, we still cannot change the mind-set where women are viewed as the ‘weaker gender’. When this pandemic hit us, not many thought about the specific difficulties that girls would face. Before the pandemic, girls from disadvantaged families had access to government schools and had an opportunity to go to the school and learn. However, because of this pandemic, all school buildings were closed and classes shifted to online mode. Girls from disadvantaged families did not have the resources to study online. Even though a lot of families may have one working phone, the girl in the family might not always get it. Moreover, digital learning is not necessarily the best way of learning for all children. In addition, many girls had to contribute in house chores, which took away a lot of time from their study time. This is not expected from boys in our patriarchal society. The pandemic has also forced many young girls into early marriage which again stops the girl child from getting education and she is forced into a lifelong trap. We have also seen a high rise in domestic violence during the pandemic.
As reported by a major newspaper in India, 1,477 complaints of domestic violence were made by women between March 25 and May 3, 2020. This 68 day period recorded more complaints than those received between March and May in the previous 10 years. It is also important to note that 77% of the women don’t even mention violence to anyone, 9% tell someone but don’t take action and only 14% sought help from a source (Thehindu.com). All this makes me wonder about ways to resolve the problem of gender inequality in our country. Education and awareness are big steps. Better laws or better implementation of laws will also help. But I have a feeling that we need to act on this together as a society to help the girls in our country thrive.
-Tanvi Chopra
