Page 8 - Dream May 2020 English

COVID-19 SPECIAL
WOMEN
Gender sensitivity and COVID-19
Kinkini Dasgupta Misra
COVID-19, the coronavirus infection that has quickly spread the world over since it was first reported at the end of last year, shows up as critical cases mostly among the elderly and individuals with prior
ailments although younger people are also at risk. Precise sex-disaggregated information is required to study whether and how women and men experience threats and how they approach the risk.
Even now, obviously women and young girls face a plethora of underlying risk factors that must be addressed. While addressing the role of gender in fighting against the pandemic, The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) guidance document states that “Disease outbreaks affect women and men differently,” and highlights the existing gender disparity for women and girls in accessing to healthcare services for treatment and care.1
Women and men are impacted differently
The disease outbreaks not only affect women but also affect the marginalised groups and people with disabilities. Therefore, access to services and treatment to women and these vulnerable groups of people need to be considered
separately given how differently the outbreaks impact them.
Women usually have a lower level
of participation than men in decision
making concerning the outbreak, and as
a result their general and reproductive
wellbeing needs may go neglected to a
great extent. Drawing lessons from the
Zika virus epidemic, contrasts in decision-
making power among people implied
that women didn't have control over their
choices, which was aggravated by their
lack of access to healthcare services and
inadequate financial resources to go to
primary healthcare centres and hospitals
for check-ups for themselves and their
children. This is despite women doing the
greater part of community spread control
exercises. Similarly, there is inadequate level of women’s representation in crisis planning during pandemic and responses, which has been found in a portion of the national and worldwide COVID-19 responses.
As far as other risks are concerned, men may show less health-seeking behaviour because they consider themselves physically superior, resulting in delay of the detection and hence access to treatment for the infection. Against the background of such standards, men may furthermore feel pressure due to economic hardship arising from the outbreak such as the
inability to work, causing panic and insecurity in the family. During isolation, women and men's experiences and needs will also differ on account of their distinctive physical, social, security, and sanitary needs.
Therefore, it is important to incorporate a gender perspective in preparedness and response planning to improve the effectiveness of health interventions and promote gender equality and equity. Experiences from past outbreaks also show the gap of significant gender planning in readiness and responses to mitigate the disease outbreaks like the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa during 2014-2016.
Women on the front lines
Women comprise the majority of health and social care workers and are even on the front line of the fight against COVID-19. It is therefore a matter of concern that they are not fully engaged in decision making and planning of interventions, security surveillance, detection, and prevention mechanisms.
Women may have to confront increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 because of their disproportional ratio among healthcare and social service personnel. Globally, around 70
% of health and social sector workforce are women. As frontline health workers they are on the forefront of any disease outbreak. Among various classes of frontline health workers in India, almost 90% are qualified nurses and midwives.
Women and girls come under greater risks when the healthcare system redirects resources from reproductive healthcare to response to the epidemic, leading to shortage of resources. Women continue to require maternal healthcare services which is often overlooked in such crises and healthcare systems are forced to allocate health personnel and other resources towards critical care services. More than 24 lakh ASHA and Anganwadi workers in different States are involved in regular check-ups and detection of symptoms in
their areas on COVID-19. These health workers are finding difficulty in providing services to fight against COVID-19 due to shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) and facilities.
A recent study from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control highlights that the death rate among men was 2.8%, compared with 1.7% for women, while COVID-19 is infecting men and women in about equal numbers. The study reports that this difference could be due to biological and lifestyle factors and that women are likely to have stronger immune response against the infections than men.2 However, current
The nationwide closure of educational institutions due to COVID-19 spread will have adverse effects on girls’ education in India. The dropout rate among girls might go up and may lead to early marriage and sexual exploitation, impacting on the adolescent health. Further, the large number of women workforce engaged in vocational training and working in midday meals programmes and crèches are likely to get more affected than men due to closure of schools.
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