A Gender-responsive Policy and Fiscal Response to the Pandemic

Relevance: Sociology: Social Changes in India: (i) Visions of Social Change in India: (a) Idea of development planning and mixed economy. (b) Constitution, law and social change. & G.S paper I: Society and social issues & G.S paper II: Polity & Governance: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.  Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services

It is important to include women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex+ persons in the monitoring and accountability mechanisms of the government. A policy that is based on gender concerns and a gender-sensitive fiscal response to the ongoing health crisis as well as the period after that is the need of the hour.

CONTEXT

The Government of India res­ponded to the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic by closing its borders and gradually putting in restrictions on citizen movement until 24 March 2020 when the entire country was put under complete lockdown within four hours’ notice. This was for three weeks to begin with and extended on 14 April to a total of 40 days.

A couple of days later, on 26 March 2020, the union finance minister announced a set of mitigation measures from the union government to support the people of the country who had been affected.

Wenham et al (2020) have cautioned how important it is that within our response to a crisis, we address patriarchal norms, roles, and relations so that we do not end up reproducing or perpetuating gender and health inequalities and reinforcing economic deprivation of women.

The Feminist Policy Collective (FPC), a platform of feminist economists and gender activists in India, sees the current situation as an opportunity to promote a gender-responsive policy framework.

Gender Unequal Impacts

Previous research by scholars studying the impact of epidemics of the last decade, namely the severe acute respiratory syndrome, Ebola and others, on women acknowledge that epidemics have gender unequal impacts, and the policy and community responses to such epide­mics also affect differently on men, women and other genders. This is as much a consequence of gendered roles and existing power relations as other social divisions of caste, class, location, religion and status.

In the immediate term, women are affected as healthcare workers at the front line, as users of health services and as economic agents in the larger space of livelihoods, and as citizens in the domain of other economic and civil rights.

A gendered analysis of how the economic and public policy response to the pandemic has addressed the needs of half our population, and suggest immediate and long-term ways forward. There has been a slew of policy responses by most state governments to the emergent crisis, but we limit ourselves here to examining the gender implications of the responses of the union government.

The first policy response was to enforce the practice of physical “distancing” through physical lockdowns of cities and specific geographies. At this time, transportation, markets, jobs and services are all blocked, food supplies are uncertain and paid work is unavailable, supply and production chains are disrupted and further held up by overzealous or corrupt policemen.

Several researchers, activists, journalists and United Nations (UN) agencies have pointed out that the brunt of this is being borne by the most disadvantaged and vulnerable, including women, girls and transpersons, especially the poor, without documentation or social protection, informal sector and landless workers and those lower in caste hierarchies, minorities, migrants and internally displaced communities, people with illness o