COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN INDIA:

RECCOMENDATIONS FOR A
FEMINIST APPROACH
Shru% Arora| Twinkle | Rajeshwari
Women face greater risk of
violence
Oxfam India Recommends:
•One Stop Centres, women helplines, shelter homes,
Special Cells for women and children, mahila desks in
police stations etc. are deemed as
essential services, despite the lockdown.
•NGOs who operate helplines, run crisis
support centres and operate shelter homes need
to be given special passes, concessions and financial
support to be able to continue their services.
•In the long run, make a network of functional One
Stop Centres, integrated across public services such as
Hospitals and Police Stations functional upto the block
level.
•Take immediate and stringent action against
perpetrators of gender based violence and sexual
harassment to instilconfidence in law enforcement enabling
women’s safety.
 Front-line workers such
as ASHAs, Anganwadi workers and ANMs
(Auxiliary Nurse Midwives) are at additional
risk. Recommendations:
•Age and sex disaggregated data of those
affected including how many are health
care workers.
•All healthcare workers, paramedics and
volunteers, sanitation workers especially
women and girls, must urgently be
WOMEN HEALTHCARE given adequate health information and
personal protection equipment (PPE) to
PROVIDERS AND ensure their safety.
•Adequate health information, protective gears
CARERS including masks, sanitizers, soap, and water
available and accessible to women in families.
Additional burden of unpaid
carework
1) Women’s unpaid care work of cooking, fetching water,
cleaning, serving the family, minding, caring for the children
among others
2) Dalit, Adivasi and Muslim families may be prohibited to
access water and essential commodities from scarce resources
in the community.
Recommendations:
•Provide water, if required by tankers, free of cost, at the door
step in urban slums and remote villages. Dry rations, sanitary
napkins, essential commodities, commonly required medicines,
•Hygienic, safe and separate community toilets should be
provided to women and girls in the community.
•Give messages of sharing the household work by all persons at
home, especially men and boys.
EXACERBATED STIGMA, MYTHS AND
MISCONCEPTIONS WHICH AFFECT WOMEN

Women induced to undertake rituals such as lighting lamps,

bathing and worshipping gods at the crack of dawn and others in
the hope to drive away the infection
• To spread awareness of the modes of transmission, signs and
symptoms of the disease, ways of protecting oneself, information
about testing and treatment and messaging against stigma in
the community in rural, remote and tribal areas; among
migrant workers-local languages, Radio, TV etc.
• Access to testing and care services should be enhanced in rural
areas with no discrimination through involvement of women
volunteers, transgender volunteers and women’s groups from
within the community.
.
Economic hardships for the poorest
women and gender and sexual minorities

•Closure of mid-day meals for children

and Anganwadi services for children, pregnant
and lactating women, and adolescent girls.
•Announcements made by the central
government to provide benefits and cash
transfers through Jan Dhan accounts but 20% of
Indian adults lack a bank account and 54% of
women's Jan Dhan accounts are inactive
 Economic hardships for the poorest women and gender and
sexual minorities
Recommendations:
•The government needs to ensure that unregistered women, who may not have any of
the identity cards, are kept track of with the help of local Self Help Groups (SHGs) and
volunteers from amongst the affected communities.
• Cash vouchers, which do not require bank accounts should be used to provide
essential commodities.
• Transgender persons, sex workers, rag pickers, homeless and beggars—a majority of
these being women and children—should also receive all the above benefits.
•Financial benefits to women should be substantially increased and the additional
economic support will need to be continued at least for the coming six months.
•All informal sector and MGNREGA workers, a large number of them women, should be
compensated at minimum wages rate despite closure of work
Closure of OPDs
at hospitals
Persons who need periodic access to medical services such
as pregnancy services but also services for Diabetes,
Dialysis, Hypertension, Tuberculosis, Epilepsy, Cancer,
Psychiatric treatment and others can worsen their mental
health. Recommendations:
•Maternity services, access to sexual and reproductive
health services including contraception and safe abortions,
healthcare for children and other primary healthcare must
be made a priority and made operational through
government dispensaries, district and sub-district hospitals
and facilities closer to the community.
•The essential services provision should be
used to penalise any Primary Health Centres (PHCs) or
public dispensaries which close down or refuse to provide
the standard services expected at each level.
India’s TB policy fails to address gender gaps in healthcare. Its Covid-19 response
Sandhya
must remedy this Krishnan
Ashna
Ashesh
If experiences of the disease and its accompanying social and economic challenges vary depending on gender, then should the kind of care also not change?
PROBLEMS SOLUTIONS
•  Women are more hesitant to report their symptoms, • To provide gender sensitive care, the most important step is to initiate an
have poorer access to health care, shoulder a heavier inclusive and public conversation about what it means to genders and communities
burden of running the household, and are at higher risk – whether it be in the case of tuberculosis, Covid-19, or any other disease. One of
of malnutrition. the ways the government can develop a narrative around gender and health is
•  Moreover, trans individuals, non-binaries, and persons through public service awareness campaigns.
with non-heteronormative sexual orientations are less •  Integrate these concepts into India’s care training. The government must provide
likely to report their condition as they face multi-gender sensitivity training to all health personnel. This is crucial because until
discrimination and abuse by healthcare authorities, and the conceptual frameworks change in the minds of those who provide care, it is
are o?en given poor quality care or denied access to it meaningless.
altogether. In cases where they do get healthcare, they • Integrate into these policies factors like class, caste, and region. It’s time to take
fail to complete the course of treatment due to gender equity out of the hands of experts and doctors in ivory towers and consider
economic constraints. the lived experiences of those who inhabit numerous gender and sexual
orientations.

Any revised framework and future intervention on gender and disease

ought to begin, as Mohandas Gandhi said, with the most vulnerable
person at the centre. If it doesn’t benefit them, then it’s neither
inclusive, diverse nor responsive to the needs of all genders.

https://scroll.in/article/960349/indias-tb-policy-fails-to-address-gender-gaps-in-healthcare-its-covid-19-response-
must-remedy-this
 “There will be a minor baby boom in nine months. and then in
2033, we shall witness the rise of
‘quaranteens
An NGO filed a PIL in the ”
Delhi high court last week on the rise in incidents of
“intimate terrorism” - such as domestic violence, child abuse and unwanted
pregnancies.

TV personality Hong Seok-chun posted on

his Instagram account on Tuesday, asking
sexual minorities to have courage and get
tested for the new coronavirus infection.
(Hong’s Instagram account)
Fortunately, ‘anonymous’ testing is
available, so testing should be done
https://m.timesofindia.com/india/coronavirus-will-40-day-lockdown-
immediately,” he said.
result-in-baby-boom-nine-months-later/amp_articleshow/
75250104.cms

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced at Sunday’s regular COVID-19
briefing that 166 infections had been traced to the Itaewon club incident
“We don’t say a heterosexual person got the coronavirus. We just say a person. Saying that a sexual minority got the
virus is already an expression of hate,”
This isn’t the first time, and it happens quite o?en. I think this incident was caused by the press focusing on
‘homosexuality’ rather than ‘club,’” said a 28-year-old gay South Korean who wished to be identified by his Instagram
name, Mallong.
“Reporters might not be aware, but mentioning sexual minority is like sending a bait for the communities who loathe
it,” “This sort of incident is perfect to blame on sexual minorities because it is a good excuse to shut them away from
Seven pro-LGBTQ groups held a joint conference on May 12, society.”
promising to cooperate in bringing the COVID-19 outbreak in “I also feel anger wondering why that person had to go clubbing at a time like this,”
Itaewon under control.
01 02 03
Kerala’s Chief Minister Uttar Pradesh has announced a
The Chief Minister
exhorted women from
of Odisha mentioned the special helpline number—112—to
Kudumbashree programme.
increased burden of
Anganwadi workers and receive complaints of any
household work on women
people’s representatives to be emergencies, with a specific
in times of the lock-down,
vigilant for such incidents of the families to be mindful of mention of domestic violence. On
domestic violence and to help
this and limit their
women in distress. The state receiving complaints of domestic
needs. Men and boys
of Kerala has announced should share in the violence, women police will visit
loans
housework was also homes of the victims and help
worth Rs2,000 crore would be
mentioned them.
made available to needy
families through the all-women
networks of the
'Kudumbashree' programme d
uring April and May 2020
Positive policy initiative taken by Government
 04 05 06
Chief Minister The Odisha government has Both Chhattisgarh and Delhi will
of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot decided to provide mid-day meal promote students belonging to
directed the state health coupons to students for three classes nursery to 8th without
officials to keep a track of months in advance. exams which will reduce the
pregnant women in all districts number of girls who might drop-out
and make adequate of schools.
arrangements for
their care and access to safe
deliveries.

Positive policy initiative taken by Government

07 08
In Madurai in Tamil Nadu a Haryana, all health workers and
state-wide toll free helpline for frontline workers involved in combating
people with disabilities the pandemic would be provided
(18004250111) is currently accident insurance (ex-gratia) of ₹10
functional and assistance is Lakhs27.
being provided in terms of
buying of essential
commodities.

Positive policy initiative taken by Government

 •Make age and sex disaggregated data
available for all those affected, including
healthcare providers and use this
information to plan further support
•Acknowledge that women’s gender roles
and subordinate status makes them
vulnerable during crisis and take steps to
reduce their vulnerability
Oxfam India’s Key •Involve women, women’s groups and NGOs

Recommendations in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic

•Focus on gender transformative and
empowering steps such as adequate
economic support, redressal for violence
against women and girls and access to
sexual and reproductive health
•Focus on a long term rebuilding of the
economy with a special focus on women and

06
girls