More women need to be seen, to be heard, to be counted A recent UN Women report lauds the role played by women heads of government in countries as diverse as New Zealand and Ethiopia. The report also calls out the role played by Indian women medical and health experts who have led from the front in a collaborative and compassionate way SUBHALAKSHMI NANDI & SAACHI BHALLA MARCH 08, 2021 / 09:43 AM IST

 

‘A woman’s voice is drowned out by the voices of at least 3 men’ finds a recent report published by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF); and in the case of India, it is five men.

This report is based on a study analysing COVID-19-related reportage and uses the lens of women as sources of news and protagonists on one hand, and on the other hand, it analyses the coverage of gender issues. The report highlights women’s absence in political decision-making (for India, they find that COVID-19-related decision-making bodies at the national level are 86 percent comprised of men), due to which women remain in their marginalised positions, do not have the opportunity to shape the discourses, nor have any role in driving gender-responsive decisions.

This year’s Women, Business, and the Law report by the World Bank finds that only 10 percent of the 190 economies studied targeted women’s economic security and only 8 percent were found providing support for unpaid care in their post-COVID-19 response. At the same time, there is a recognition of the strong leadership role being played by women in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

A recent UN Women report lauds the role played by women heads of government in countries as diverse as New Zealand and Ethiopia. The report also calls out the role played by Indian women medical and health experts who have led from the front in a collaborative and compassionate way.

Our experience of working across India with women’s collectives and with women-led organisations has been humbling. For instance, Savita Devi* from, Bihar, a first-time panchayat member, played a critical role in raising awareness about COVID-19 appropriate behaviours and supporting families in accessing the relief measures under the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan.

Devi also identified that adolescent girls may face an exacerbated risk of school dropout and even early marriage, and was instrumental in not only stopping a 12-year-old girl’s wedding, but also mobilised the community to collectively pledge that no child would be married before they reached the legal age. She is one of many such women leaders.

The National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), which has mobilised more than 70 million Self Help Groups (SHGs), has been another platform where women have showcased their leadership. The SHGs across India pivoted their activities to running community kitchens and producing masks, sanitisers, and PPE kits — supporting India to move from a point of having limited kits towards becoming ‘aatmanirbhar’ (self-reliant).

In Madhya Pradesh, the Samta Sakhis, who are community resource persons (CRPs) working with the SHG federations on gender and equity, set up a Lok Adhikar Kendra (or Gender Justice Centre) at the block level and supported their communities in many ways — to access government programmes, health insurance, pension schemes, employment in public works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), helped banks disburse emergency cash transfers under the Jan Dhan Yojana, and also supported their members who experienced domestic violence during the lockdown period.

These stories have not just inspired us, but also strengthened our resolve to act on addressing the gender concerns that remain — and that may have got exacerbated — over the COVID-19 crisis, such as in employment, in aggravation of unpaid work, and in accessing essential services such as family planning.

In response, we might need to think of targeted initiatives to support women in the post-COVID-19 world. We might need to develop more sensitive data systems and ensure better tracking of gender outcomes. India’s first-ever nationwide Time Use Survey has been a milestone in 2020, and we are hopeful that this will be repeated at regular intervals to track women’s time poverty.

Our resolve is also to listen more carefully and thoughtfully to the voices and experiences of Devi and to the Samta Sakhis and the hundreds of thousands of other women like them — and to be more responsive to their realities.

As this year’s theme for the International Women’s Day is aptly focused on ‘Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World’, we must all renew our commitment to ensuring that more women are seen, their voices heard, and their contributions counted.(*name changed to protect identity).