Women workers worst hit by the Covid pandemic

Recently, I happened to converse with a friend who's working with a leading media relations company. Considering that there is a stringent (but not so much) lockdown (but not one) in Mumbai, I asked her how she was coping with work from home (WFH) in these times. As a mother of young twins, it would be super-tough handling housework and WFH, I imagined. To my utter surprise, she was not working from home but commuting to work almost every day. With the escalating number of job losses in the industry, she wasn't too keen to jeopardise her position in the company, even if it exposed her to a greater risk of contracting the virus. "Years of working hard to attain this position can't be risked because of the pandemic. Have to carry on," she tried to sound optimistic.

It is said that the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 is pretty agnostic to differences of race, gender, economic status or nationality. You are as likely to be afflicted by anyone else: rich, poor, man or woman. Yet, the impact that the virus has on the lives of the people it afflicts depends greatly on these factors. Thus, if you happen to fall into the economically weaker section, the likelihood of finding timely care is lower in comparison to a wealthy person. The economic impact is also more pronounced, with the job losses or hardships being faced by the lower sections of the society.

When it comes to livelihood and jobs in India, the worst impacted - by far - are women. Ever since the viral disease came to our country in January 2020, India has been in the throes of an economic crisis. With a significant reduction in GDP growth and industrial output, there has been a substantial increase in job losses across the different sectors of the economy. The situation is even grimmer for the women in the workforce, who had to bear immense pressures due to an increase in domestic-work burden and also being able to cope with changing work environment. As a result, a vast number are moving out of the workforce.

A recent report titled "State of Working India 2021 – One year of Covid-19" prepared by the Centre for Sustainable Employment (CSE) at Azim Premji University highlighted India's precarious state of employment and how it was impacted by the outbreak last year. For instance, according to the report, about 100 million workers lost jobs during the nationwide April-May 2020 lockdown. While a vast majority were back at work by June 2020, even by the end of 2020, about 15 million workers remained unemployed. During the lockdown, nearly 230 million additional individuals fell below the national minimum wage poverty line.

The report gives a comprehensive overview of how the workforce was impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak last year. Its revelations on gender parity and working women are quite disturbing. The report collated data from a wide range of studies and research such as the Consumer Pyramids Household Survey from the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy, the Azim Premji University Covid-19 Livelihoods Phone Survey (CLIPS) and the India Working Survey (IWS). The overall picture for women in the workforce is pretty dour, as reflected in the report.

For instance, during the lockdown and months afterwards, 61% of working men remained employed, and 7% lost employment and did not return to work. For women, only 19% remained employed, and 47% suffered a permanent job loss during the lockdown, not returning to work even by the end of 2020.

Rather than having women leave agricultural work and shift towards better-paid and more productive manufacturing jobs (as was achieved in East Asian and Southeast Asian economies), the Indian economy has instead pushed them out of the labour force altogether.

The fact that women are hit harder by the pandemic is not unique to India. But it is particularly problematic, as the participation of women in India's workforce has been on a decline over the past decade despite the increasing GDP. According to the World Bank data, 20.3% of girls and women aged 15 and older participate in the labour force as of 2020, compared to three-fourth (76%) when it comes to men in the same age group. Women account for only 19.9% of the total labour force in India. The agriculture sector is the primary source of employment for women, accounting for 60% of working women in India. Participation of women in other industrial core sectors is minimal, like 7% in oil and gas, 10% in auto, 11% in pharma and 28% in IT. Sadly, in times of distress or economic downturn, the women bear the brunt and find their jobs axed.

The biggest shocker from the report by CSE was that a high level of education or experience did not insulate women from job losses. In fact, in proportionate terms, the exit was highest in the case of salaried women workers (56%). For men, the exit level was much lower, with the highest exit being seen among temporary salaried workers (16%). In other employment arrangements, too, women exited in larger shares compared to men. For instance, 42% of self-employed women left the workforce, compared to 10% males. Also, matrimony seemed to play a role, according to the report. Married women were less likely to return to work than married men, who were more likely to return to work. This dichotomy indicated a gendered nature of work responsibilities, namely, the male is a breadwinner and the female is a household care worker.

These contractions in jobs couldn't have come at a worse time for the women, as they faced additional draw on their time for domestic chores. Due to the lockdowns, families stayed put in their homes; thus, the burden of household work increased manifold for the women.

At a broader level, the gender parity in the Indian workforce has been badly impacted by the pandemic. According to a recent Global Gender Gap Report 2021 by the World Economic Forum, India has slipped 28 places to rank 140th among 156 countries globally, making it the third-worst performer in South Asia, with Pakistan and Afghanistan trailing and Bangladesh being at the top. The report also highlights the gender discrimination in the wages earned, as the estimated earned income of women in India is only one-fifth of men, thereby putting the country in the bottom ten globally in terms of gender-parity in earnings.

It has taken decades for India to reach a stage where women were stepping out of the confines of their homes and taking charge of their destiny. Sustainable Development Goals also have impressed upon industry the need to push for gender parity - Goal No. 5 talks about gender equality. Sadly, all the gains seem to have been wiped off by the COVID-19 pandemic. The CSE report suggests launching a pilot urban employment programme in the worst-hit districts, focused on women workers.

With no light at the end of the tunnel, women continue to shoulder the burden without batting an eyelid. Like my friend, who continues to commute to work despite the lockdown in Mumbai. "COVID-19 will come and go, but our work stays the same or, in a worse case, increases in portion. Need to go with the flow," she chirps.

It's incredible how women don't let situations or scenarios daunt them. An earning woman is not only an asset to the family but also to the GDP at large. Such findings should therefore really bother us. It's high time that state and society realised women's worth and gave them their proper due.

Shashwat DC is part of the research team at Azim Premji University. He is a blogger with sustainabilityzero.com. With a deep interest in history and mythology, he is also a passionate champion of the environment & bio-diversity. He writes on issues related to sustainability, sustainable development, ESG and CSR.