Women hit harder by socio-economic impacts of coronavirus: UN Women report

Gender and social inequalities that underpinned societies in Asia and the Pacific before the novel corona virus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic are now exacerbated, making bad situations for women and girls even worse, warns a new report by UN Women.
The report, “The First 100 Days of the Covid-19 Outbreak in Asia and the Pacific: A Gender Lens,” presents a snapshot of the gender dimensions of the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic and captures promising practices for integrating gender in preparedness and response planning while proposing potential and entry points to mitigate the socio-economic impacts for women and girls in the region.
The publication highlights the immediate needs of women in the context of the pandemic, including those of female health-care workers and survivours of gender-based violence, as well as direct impacts related to women and girls’ unpaid care work, sexual and reproductive health and rights, interrupted access to education and unequal access to information.
“Asia and the Pacific continues to be the region most prone to natural disasters in the world,” UN Women Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific Mohammad Naciri said, adding that the gendered impacts of additional disasters within the context of Covid-19 can be anticipated: A Mekong drought, for example, combined with the increased need for hygiene practices like handwashing in the context of the pandemic, will likely result in significant increases to the unpaid care work burden of women, who are primarily responsible for collection of water for household use. “Response and recovery efforts must place the needs of women and girls at the centre and be grounded in the socio-economic realities that they face.”
The ‘100 Days’ gender report discusses the impacts and the potential way forward on issues including women, peace and security, gender and disaster risk reduction, ending violence against women and women’s economic empowerment, while stressing the specific needs of marginalised and underserved groups, including refugees, women with disabilities, LGBTQI persons and women living with HIV.
The report also brings to light that a gender lens on this crisis enables us to leverage existing work and expertise – from rebuilding in disasters to rebuilding peace – to ensure that the world post-COVID is built on principles of human rights and gender equality.

Women migrant workers not willing to return to foreign employment

Couple of years ago, when she was at home, Ashamaya Gurung has never dreamt of earning as much as she could earn in a foreign land.
Lack of employment opportunity back home forced her to search greener pasture in foreign land far from her family members but the situation has reversed in last couple of years.
Currently, she is earning as much as she used to earn in Lebanon, where she worked for some years and returned.
After Gurung returned home around one year ago, she started fishery. Currently, she is not only earning as much as she used to earn in Lebanon but has also created employment for her family members too.
"I have two small ponds -- where I have 1,300 fish -- on a leased land," Limbu said proudly, adding that she doesnot want to return to Lebanon now. She pays Rs 7,000 per year for the land.
Given the alternatives to income, majority of the women migrant workers want to stay back with their family, according to a survey that is going to be published soon.
"Some 99 per cent of the returnees wanted to go back to foreign land for employment in 2006 when the survey started but the situation has reversed in last four years, given the alternatives to income, some 94 per cent of returnees want to stay back with their family," revealed the survey conducted by Nepal Institute of Developement Studies (NIDS) and UN Women (earlier UNIFEM) that have conducted and completed various activities including a baseline survey of more than 900 families.
The entrepreneurship of the returnees has made use of remittance in the productive sector. "Not only that it has also to be seen as a family integration," said Sharu Joshi Shrestha, Programme Manager for Migration, UN Women.
"However, they need to be trained," she said, adding that they have to be provided with option, if the government discourages women migrant workers from going to Gulf countries for employment.
Despite government ban, they have been going through illegal route exposing themselves to more risk and vulnarability. "The government bodies are not focusing on supporting the returnee women migrant workers,' she said, adding that they should also be given need-based training and encouraged to start their own business using the money and skill they have brought in.
Economic Security of Women Migrant Workers (ESWMW), an IFAD / UNIFEM supported project, has been implemented by NIDS and Pourakhi to generate necessary resource, voice and visibility among WMWs and the members of their families to engage and influence the policies on remittance and reintegration.
To help such returnee WMWs, Ministry of Labour and Transport management, NIDS and Paurakhi has jointly organised some 25 eight-day and two-day Economic Security Programme since 2009 December.
In a year, 489 women migrant workers took the training and of them 441 started their own small businesses like poultry farming, basic hotel management, beauty parlor, tailoring, dhaka clothes weaving, mobile restaurant, vegetable and mushroom farming, shop, and food processing.
Of the total, some 45 per cent utilised the remittance they brought in and currently are earning as much as they used to get in Gulf countries.
Women Migrant Workers (WMWs) remittance comprises 11 per cent of the total remittance inflow in the country that has received Rs 231.72 billion remittance in the fiscal year 2009-10.
Studies have indicated that most of the remittances earned by WMWs are used to pay off debt, school fee of children, household consumption; hence it is not invested for long term livelihood security.