POLICY CENTRE AND GENDER LAB

Tough time of COVID-19 is taking a toll on each and everyone, but some are at greater risk than others like elderly women. Their physical sufferings, that is, threat from COVID-19 and other aging disabilities have just summed up with distorting mental well-being. Elderly Women constitute 55% of all older persons and a majority of them, 58% live in developing countries, where they are already financially and socially insecure, thus not able to survive the burns of lockdown effectively. 10% of older women engaged in informal sector have already lost their jobs. For upcoming months or years they would have no income, subsequently increasing their dependency on their families, who might not receive them well because of the financial burden of the medics  and the extra care they would require. Though, in these situations, the women are becoming the most vulnerable group of the society, be it young girls, newly married, pregnant women, mothers and grandmothers- the situation is taking an...

As the world grapples with COVID-19, the plight of a yet another ignored category of women has come to surface in the recent weeks- female sportspersons, who, having been exposed to increased levels of stress and uncertainty induced due to the lockdown, have found themselves in an unanticipated crisis. Athletes around the world including multiple Grand Slam winner Serena Williams and decorated swimmer Michael Phelps have spoken about the effect of the lockdown on the mental health of athletes. This article makes an analysis of varied problems faced by athlete women in dealing with the pandemic and lockdown. Exercise constraints and extreme changes in routine owing to the lockdown have had a direct impact on their menstrual symptoms including disruption in menstrual cycles, painful cramps and heavier bleeding. Period tracking app FitrWoman, which provides personalized training and nutritional assistance tailored to one’s menstrual cycle to improve athletic performance, has reported an e...

Issues: As we move on to get the realization that the lockdown is not going to end any sooner, we need to introspect and get insights of those who remain unnoticed in the events of quarantine. They are the ones who are the silent sufferers of the entire process of the pandemic. We have been talking for the vulnerable section of the same society that is co-shared by them but is often neglected, and their problems are considered insignificant. They are not the workers, migrants or labourers but the pregnant women who might have the privilege to occupy a comfortable zone for her nativity but in such tensed times may be denied the maternal medical care. Or this may also include those who lie on the verge of vulnerability. They are even neglecting the basic amenities and aid that require normal child delivery. These women are carrying babies in their womb and walking day in and day out. The extended Lockdown gives us a privilege to look into their lives and understand at least what their pa...

In a study done by the Thomas Reuters Foundation in 2018 [1] , India ranked number 1 to be the most dangerous country in the world for women . The second most populous nation, the fifth largest economy of the world in terms of nominal GDP was ranked so execrably on the basis of a concoction of standards like ‘sexual violence’, ‘culture and religion-based practices’, ‘human trafficking’, ‘non- sexual violence’, ‘health’ and ‘discrimination’, each encompassing a number of sub-standards. About two years after the study, when Indian women comprising 48.02% of the total population (data by World Bank, 2018), sit at their homes in the wake of anti- COVID- 19 lockdown, the experiences of these women lead to a particularly discrete kind of political discourse and bring to the forefront, the state of women in the ‘safe boundaries’ of their homes. More acute is the impact of gender-based malpractices in the times of lockdown on female students owing to their young and impressionable minds on on...

Not one would disagree that our society has conventionally relegated women to the margins of our social fabric, has ever let them down with abuses, physical and mental harassment and closed-door violence. Nationwide lockdowns imposed in the wake of Covid-19 has only contributed to increased cases of gender-based violence and sexual harassment, besides a heightened burden of household chores and responsibilities. This article makes an in-depth analysis of the harrowing experiences of women belonging to diverse backgrounds and strata, locked within the four walls of their household, undergoing painful tortures at the hands of male members of the family. It has either been neglected or hasn’t received due attention. UN chief Antonio Guterres called for measures to address a “horrifying global surge in domestic violence”, directed towards women and girls linked to lockdowns. Besides, Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka appealed to leaders to declare as essential services...

Clothed in fine regalia for my king, I walked to his place carrying an engagement ring.  Clouds cuddling the yellowish crescent moon, Glowered at my dress coloured maroon. Up till twelfth block , a trio of bullies chased me, Repeatedly stinging lewd comments like a bee. "Let's rape him if he wants to be a woman" they claimed, While the flickering lamps of the dull street endlessly wailed. My body slashed in bushes drained puddles of blood, Quivering in agony with people unheard of my thud.  Once again a gaily man parted the world's array, Ever since the Bible defied his existence away.  - WRITTEN BY ESHITA NIRWAN  Image source:pexels.com by- cottonbro