Dec 20:
Amid the Covid-19 crisis, three out of four Indians are experiencing their first recession. As might be expected, women are bearing the brunt of the pain — and the consequences could be long-lasting.
A tiny elite of urban, educated women has benefited from the shift to remote work under lockdown: A recent study released by LinkedIn, based on internal data for India, found women’s participation in the labor force actually increased by 7% between April and July. But this only applies to jobs in the formal, white-collar, urban economy — a tiny fraction of the labor market. For most Indian women, the situation is deeply worrying.
Covid-19 has exposed one of the biggest problems of urban India: Most of the wealthy and middle class live in nice neighborhoods, while those who serve their needs live in slums. In Dharavi, Mumbai’s largest slum, it is not uncommon for a few hundred families to share a single water source or toilet facility, which makes social distancing all but impossible.
The urban rich, who have ignored this reality for decades, have for the first time had to confront the living conditions of their nannies, cleaners and drivers. They have not responded by campaigning for better living conditions. Instead, they’ve fired their domestic staff and looked to replace them with the latest vacuums, baby monitors and dishwashers.
Tens of thousands of domestic workers, predominantly women, are now struggling to make ends meet. Their children are falling behind due to school closures. With so many unemployed competing for jobs, these workers are likely to have even less bargaining power in the labor market after the pandemic. Many are now depending for support on their extended families, a trend that may not reverse even when society returns to normal.
Their former employers are struggling in their own way. India has one of the worlds’ most unequal divisions of household labor between men and women. As household incomes increase, women are more likely to enjoy greater support for household work since they can afford to hire staff.
But the economic lockdown and school closures have severely disrupted this system, with the burden falling on women. A recent study by economist Ashwini Deshpande found that Indian men initially stepped in to share household chores when the spring lockdowns were imposed.
By August, however, men’s time spent on housework, while still higher than pre-pandemic levels, had declined. And more educated men spent less time on domestic work than their less-educated counterparts. Gadgets can only help around the margins, especially when mothers are also tasked with watching after children who are stuck at home.