The Shadow Pandemic in India: ‘Staying Home’ and The Safety of Women During Lockdown

The unprecedented health crisis caused by COVID-19 has taken the world by storm. The only way deemed plausible to tackle the crisis in most countries was a policy of restricting mobility and of staying home. However, there are varied views on the merit of such a lockdown. In India the enforcement of ‘staying home’ also needs to be considered in light of the fact that about one-third of the households in the country have to accommodate 3-4 persons per room defying the requirement of social distancing. The situation of women during lockdown is particularly difficult, as their workload has increased, as has their exposure to violence and a denial of vital outside sources of support. The ‘staying home’ rule involves a myriad of issues differing according to the respective social environment. Middle-class women tend to be left with the additional burden of taking care of family members and home-schooling children without the support of helpers who have been released during lockdown. Women working in the informal sector are likely to be hit by a loss of their jobs, and as spouses of often equally jobless informal sector workers ‘add to the burden’ on the financial situation. Addressing the needs of women in times of lockdown is important as gender budgeting is widely known to impact positively on development planning.