Coronavirus Likely to Lock India's Women Out of Job Market for Years
Gender imbalance is a persistent issue in India, as women are disproportionately employed in low-wage, low-skilled jobs. With the pandemic-induced economic slowdown, the situation for Indian women's financial stability is deteriorating. Is there any hope for them to overcome this crisis?
India has been facing its worst recession since 1947 due to the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2020 and 2021, the country's economy contracted by 7.3% and, consequently, is facing high levels of unemployment, in which women have suffered more.
The Pandemic's Impacts on Unemployment
Since the beginning of the pandemic, India has recorded over 33.5 million cases of COVID-19 and just under half a million virus-related deaths. Last year, the country faced some of the strictest lockdown measures the world had seen as the government attempted to limit the COVID spread. While this move may have helped to reduce the transmission of the disease, it had a heavy economic cost that experts predict will linger for many years.
By April 2020, one month after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the spread of COVID-19 to be a pandemic, more than 122 million Indians had lost their jobs due to restrictions. At this time, India's unemployment rate hit a record high of 27.1%.
Over a year later, in May of 2021, the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) announced that the country's unemployment figures were still excessively high at 14.73%. These figures demonstrate that the impact of the economic slowdown caused by COVID-19 is persisting. Now, data is reflecting how women are being disproportionally affected by this deep-seated downturn.
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Indian Women Suffer Disproportionally from COVID Economic Decline
In India, women are most often employed in low-skilled, low-paid work, whereas men have more opportunities to gain employment in much better positions. As a result, the majority of the female labor force in those sectors suffer the most from the pandemic, such as agriculture, industry (factory works), and domestic work. In 2020, unemployment rates in India began to soar, and women became the most hapless victims. Now, as the economy shows no signs of bouncing back and recovery will likely be slow, there are fears that women will continue to be outsiders of the job market for coming years.
With thousands of factory closures and a slow vaccination rate, the prospect of women having the opportunity to return to their jobs seems dreary. Experts highlight that the recent advances made in India to gain improved social and economic status are slim compared to COVID-related devastating impacts.
Recent figures reflect India's gender disparity in employment opportunities. In September 2020, the unemployment rate among women was higher than that among men, with 15.8% vs. 12.6%, respectively. As the country struggles to reclaim some economic development, a small percentage of the population is returning to work, the majority of whom are men. Data shows that 47% of women who lost their job during the pandemic were made permanently redundant, compared with just 7% of male workers.
As the second wave of the pandemic continues, the economic stress will worsen, and women will likely suffer more than their male counterparts in terms of employment and, therefore, financial security.
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