Archana Datta

An exhaustive assistance package, in rural and urban areas, is urgently required to bridge the gender-poverty gap

The impact of the crises has never been gender-neutral, while in the Covid19 pandemic, men reportedly have a higher fatality rate, but, women and girls are especially hurt by its economic and social fallout,” asserted the UNWomen in a report, titled ‘From Insight to Action’. About 96 million people will be driven into extreme poverty by 2021, 47 million of whom are women and girls, further widening the gender-poverty gap, the report revealed.

Revised poverty forecasts by UN bodies estimate that worldwide around 435 million women and girls will be living on less than $1.90 a day, which includes 47 million specifically impoverished by the pandemic impact.

Women’s over-whelming responsibilities of child-rearing, family care, and other obligations often deter them from opting for paid work, adversely affecting their prospects of earning during the prime working years, thus creating income insecurity in old age. No wonder that among those aged 55+, women make up the majority of those living in extreme poverty (53 per cent).

The 2021 projections in the face of higher job losses, shrinking work hours, and greater care burdens, pose a graver threat of shoving 38 million more women aged 55+ into extreme poverty, as compared to 34 million men. Further, extreme poverty among girls ( 0-14 years) and young women (15-24 years) will also rise by 43.7 per cent and 17.2 per cent, respectively.

In the wake of the pandemic, thus, the hard-earned gains in poverty reduction during the last few decades are going to be neutralised. Reducing the gender gap in poverty (25-34 years) also remains a far-off reality.

Turning attention to India, the number of women and girls in extreme poverty in 2020 was 87 million, which is projected to touch 100 million in 2021. India’s gender poverty gap stands at 120 poor women vs 100 poor men in 2021, which is predicted to deteriorate further to 129 poor women per 100 poor men by 2030.

An Action Aid Association’s survey conducted in May-June 2020 found that 79.23 percent of women lost their jobs and over 51 percent of them were deprived of their rightful wages during the lockdown period. Women-owned small businesses, largely operated in consumer-facing sectors such as textiles, food processing, and handicrafts, faced a sharp demand shock, while in the informal sectors, men are being preferred more for re-employment with the reopening of the economy.

Azim Premji University, in a study titled ‘State of Working India 2021: One Year of Covid-19’, observed that around 23 crore people have fallen below the national minimum wage poverty line, around 1.5 crore workers remained jobless by the end of 2020, and reported a rise in poverty. The report said that the calamity has unleashed ‘a systemic and moral failure’, affecting the ‘women and the young workers most’.

Amidst such a grim scenario, the UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, deplored that ‘the increase in women’s extreme poverty is a stark indictment of deep flaws existing in our societies and economies’, and urged for putting in place a ‘women-centric restorative policy action for pandemic recovery’.

India has so far rolled out three fiscal stimulus packages amounting to Rs 29.87 trillion since March 2020. Have these emergency measures taken into account the gendered impact of the crisis? While the recent announcement of free rations to 80 crore people till November is indeed welcome news, what really is required to lift the impoverished households from the grip of poverty, hunger, and myriad economic challenges, is an exhaustive assistance package, based on the real needs of women, rural and urban, be it for direct cash transfers or free rations or job creations.

(The writer is Former Director-General, Doordarshan and All India Radio. The views expressed are personal.)