The Covid-19 Pandemic and Gendered Division of Paid and Unpaid Work: Evidence from India

Deshpande, Ashwini

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3722395

Cited by 27 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…For women, the pandemic has meant a setback to education, employment and intra-household agency. Women suffered more job losses owing to the pandemic than men, with a much lower likelihood of returning to work owing to care responsibilities (Abraham et al, 2021; Deshpande, 2020). A gendered digital divide, school closures and disruptions to the mid-day meal programme have likely set back girls’ school education (Kalra & Jolad, 2021).…”

Section: Impacts Of Covid-19 and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Waters: Young Women’s Work and Mobile Aspirations in India’s Small Cities

Naik

2022

Social Change

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While metropolitan cities are framed as emancipatory spaces for women migrants, we know less about their experiences in smaller cities, which are driving urban transformation in India. Drawing on pre-pandemic fieldwork with employed youth (aged 15–29 years) in Mangalore and Kishangarh, this article investigates young women’s work, education, aspirations and mobilities in smaller cities which have relatively weak scalar positions in terms of global economic, political and social power. This article finds that small cities act as regional action spaces for women from villages and small towns to capitalise on fleeting opportunities and push against patriarchal boundaries through mobilities. It shows how women use a range of strategies from individual power tactics within households to leveraging institutional support systems to do so. The article suggests that situating migrant-friendly policy initiatives in small cities can potentially improve employment and mobility outcomes for young women.

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Section: Impacts Of Covid-19 and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Waters: Young Women’s Work and Mobile Aspirations in India’s Small Cities

Naik

2022

Social Change

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“…On employment, analysis of data from the Center for Monitoring the Indian Economy—the only source of all-India longitudinal data on employment under the pandemic covering several thousand households—showed that in April 2020, soon after India’s stringent lockdown on March 25, 2020, although more men than women lost jobs in absolute terms, women were 20 percentage points less likely to be employed among those employed before the pandemic. And by August 2020, although both had recovered partially, women were behind men (Deshpande 2020). For neither period, however, do the data cover the days of work or level of earnings.…”

Section: Surveys: What They Reveal and What Remains Concealedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The comparable figures for nonmigrant households were 39 and 52 percent, respectively. Among urban middle-class couples, men who had shared some domestic tasks with their wives under lockdown usually reverted to pre-COVID levels after they returned to work (Deshpande 2020).…”

Section: Surveys: What They Reveal and What Remains Concealedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reflections on the Less Visible and Less Measured: Gender and COVID-19 in India

Agarwal

2021

Gender & Society

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The gender effects of COVID-19 are complex, and extend much beyond the issues of care work and domestic violence that have captured global attention. Some effects have been immediate, such as job losses, food shortages, and enhanced domestic work burdens; others will emerge in time, such as the depletion of savings and assets and pandemic-related widowhood, which would make recovery difficult. I use examples from India to outline the complexity of such outcomes, the limitations of the many telephone surveys conducted during the pandemic, and the importance of anticipating both the immediate and the sequential effects. We can anticipate these effects by drawing on our knowledge of preexisting gender inequalities and people’s coping strategies under crises, as well as real-time media alerts. Prior conceptualization can help us design better surveys for capturing both the visible and less visible impact of the pandemic, as well as formulate more effective policies for mitigating the adverse effects. I also highlight the advantages of group-based approaches for protecting women’s livelihoods during such crises, and emphasize the need to create a synergy between feminist theory, evidence gathering, and policy formulation.

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“…The unavailability or difficulty in procuring LPG cylinders also put the burden of collecting firewood on women and girls, placing them at risk of contracting respiratory diseases (Dutta et al, 2020). Child care responsibilities, primarily considered women's work, increased exponentially because schools, anganwadis, colleges and other child care facilities were closed (Deshpande, 2020;Power, 2020). Chauhan (2021) conducted a prepost pandemic analysis of gender segregation of unpaid work and found that married women spent 29 to 59 hours per week on care before the pandemic which increased to 70 hours per week during the lockdown.…”

Section: Gendered Impact Of the Pandemicmentioning

confidence: 99%

''Locating the Processes of Non-State Relief Work During the Covid-19 Lockdown in Delhi''

Trust¹,

Zaidi²,

Ramachandran³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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‘Locating the Processes of Non-state Relief Work during the Covid-19 Lockdown in Delhi’, uses a gender-responsive intersectional framework to highlight the critical role played by communities and civil society in four slum areas of Delhi, in order to reduce human suffering during the Covid-19 lockdown. The study is also an effort to understand the various gendered and intersectional vulnerabilities that came to the fore, the mechanisms of relief work and care that were undertaken through local collective action, as well as the collaborations and networks that were locally built to respond to the crisis. Further, the study is centred on the concepts of social reproduction and care and aims to understand the critical role played by communities in extending care within the institutional framework represented by the ‘Care Diamond’. Thus, the study draws lessons from the experiences of local slum communities in responding to the care crisis during the lockdown and aims to throw light on the wider structural inequalities in society. The findings from the study respond to the policy needs of both the government and civil society in terms of averting a care crisis and/or addressing such a scenario.

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The Covid-19 Pandemic and Gendered Division of Paid and Unpaid Work: Evidence from India

Cited by 27 publications

References 4 publications

Testing the Waters: Young Women’s Work and Mobile Aspirations in India’s Small Cities

Testing the Waters: Young Women’s Work and Mobile Aspirations in India’s Small Cities

Reflections on the Less Visible and Less Measured: Gender and COVID-19 in India

''Locating the Processes of Non-State Relief Work During the Covid-19 Lockdown in Delhi''

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