Gender and COVID 19 in Sri Lanka. Gendered Impact of Covid-19 Outbreak-From a Sri Lankan Perspective
By Avanthi Kalansooriya
On 4/28/2020
While the Covid-19 pandemic has brought the world around us to a standstill and prompted us to question if this is humanity’s apocalyptic moment, it is evident that both globally and nationally, we are unprepared to handle one of the world’s biggest public health issues. Even though the gendered health impact of the pandemic is yet to be analyzed from a more medical perspective, there is a general understanding that men are more exposed to a pandemic of this nature than women, as they carry out more outdoor activities and their mobility is higher in comparison to women. Global research says that “more men than women are dying, potentially due to sex-based immunological or gendered differences, such as patterns and prevalence of smoking. However, current sex-disaggregated data is incomplete cautioning against early assumptions” (Wenham, 2020). In Sri Lanka from the reported COVID -19 patients, 68% are male whilst 32% are female, as of 27th April 2020 according to the data provided by Coronavirus (COVID-19) Sri Lanka – Analytics Dashboard (Coronavirus (COVID-19) Sri Lanka – Analytics Dashboard, 2020).
Sri Lanka initially imposed a lockdown and a four days of working from home period to maintain at least 70% of social distancing as advised by the General Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA); this, however, did not materialize as expected since it did not effectively contribute to social distancing. As a result, an island wide intermittent curfew was introduced, while a few areas were identified as high risk areas prompting an indefinite curfew for more than a month in an attempt to avoid community spread of the virus. The indefinite curfew in the high risk areas and the intermittent curfew in the other areas have impacted the smooth functioning of the socio-economic activities of the citizens and this blog article will focus on the gendered consequences of both the epidemic outbreak and the curfew that was imposed for more than a month.
What does it mean to be locked down with an abusive partner?
One of the main issues that women face during a lockdown or a curfew of this nature is the increasing number of domestic violence cases. This is mainly owing to the fact that women are confined to their households with violent partners with lack of access to any redress mechanisms. For some women who have been in a prolonged violent relationship, work is seen as their only escape and the window to find comfort is blocked at the moment due to the lockdown. In a lockdown, they have no option of leaving home, sometimes not even the option of going to their relatives or parent’s house. Speaking about the rising numbers of domestic violence in Sri Lanka during COVID-19, the Chief Nurse of National Hospital says, “usually around 250 patients get admitted to the accident ward of the National Hospital of Sri Lanka daily. However, during the curfew only 66 patients have been admitted. Of the patients who were admitted, there are number of cases where females have undergone violence instigated by their husbands” (Daily News, 2020).
This is also further exacerbated by lack of access to any legal redress or medical redress as women’s mobility is restricted due to the curfew. Meanwhile, what happens to a woman who finally manages to access a police station, or a hospital? How do we ensure their physical safety, is it possible to issue an interim or protection order as per article 11 (a) of the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act and if the situation becomes even more difficult or is it possible to send the aggrieved party to a safe house? Currently the courts only consider bail applications regarding prisoners as per the circular issued by the Judicial Services Commission which came into effect on 30 March 2020. Under such a scenario, women only have basic access to a police station where the matter would either be reconciled or sidelined, as the police consider maintaining the curfew is of high priority.
The lockdown restricts women from accessing psycho-social counseling support unless it is provided online or through mobile clinics. But when they are spatially confined to smaller houses the possibility of utilizing these services, lodging a compliant or even talking to a friend about the matter is even more limited. Sri Lanka initiated a few hotlines for aggrieved persons to access help. While using such a hotline would be difficult for both women who live in confined spaces and the social workers who would have limited capacity to approach the victims, it still needs to be lauded as a welcome move. Offering services via WhatsApp or Viber might probably be more productive as it allows the victims to type out their issues if possible. However, access to a smart phone is limited for women in Sri Lanka, as per 2019 data digital literacy (defined as access to a computer, laptop, tablet or a smart phone of her/his own by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS)) which shows literacy as 48% among males while it is 41.1% amongst women (DCS, 2019). This brings our attention to consider whether provision of health and legal services for violent against women could be treated as an essential service or whether there is a possibility to launch mobile services. Especially, in the areas where the curfew is being lifted, the medical clinic services are provided on a mobile basis on the days that the curfew is being lifted, thus the same modality could be replicated with regard to violence against women, child abuse.
Picture Courtesy: Avon and the Avon Foundation for Women*
Increased burden of domestic and care work
There have been interesting memes and videos being circulated as to how mothers and wives are having more self-care time during the lockdown as the fathers, husbands and the children have stepped up in carrying out household chores particularly during the last month. Whether this would lead to a permanent gender role reversal is the next question we need to ask? A Time Use Survey carried out by the Department of Census and Statistics published in the form of a bulletin in 2017 identifies that women spend 86.4% of their time in unpaid domestic services for household and family members whilst men spend only 54% of their time on the same (DCS, 2017). At a time like this, women are more burdened to cook, clean and attend to their family members as they are all at home, 24/7. Since there is no access to restaurants, hotels or the much glorified bakery products which ease women’s burden of cooking meals, they are currently forced to cook extra meals and snacks for their children and husbands. This becomes even more difficult for women from low income families as they are continuously burdened by lack of access to produce to cook and have to worry about the next meal. Especially, during the lockdown, access to markets, shops is absolutely limited and most of the women have to resort to produce that arrive at their doorstep from the mobile services.
There is also added pressure on women, especially to teach their children, ensure that they complete the tasks assigned by the teachers during this period and attend to taking care of the elderly. As there is no access to schools, tuition classes or any other means of education, mothers play a prominent role in home schooling. Interestingly, there is a growing trend of more mothers training their children to cook, bake, clean and attend to their basic chores at this time as part of teaching them life skills which could reduce their burden to some extent. This enforced holiday could be utilized as a period to teach children irrespective of their gender on why it is important to take care of their own chores.
Daily wage earners and women headed households
It is important to note that the bulk of Sri Lanka’s female workforce is in the informal sector working as domestic workers, commercial sex workers, caretakers, cleaners, entrepreneurs, estate workers and small scale business women. The data from Department of Census and Statistics (2017) proves that 68% of the population are engaged in the informal employment sector and males constitute 71.2% while females constitute 61.8% of the sector (DCS, 2017). Their work has come to a complete standstill during this time. There is evidence that women are looking for some form of work within the short window that the curfew is being lifted in certain parts of the country. Given that the curfew is sometimes relaxed from 6AM-2PM they would only receive half a day’s pay, female breadwinners go through a tough time to make ends meet. Though this short window is given to effectively implement a 70% policy of social distancing, female breadwinners are doubly burdened to make an income and then stand in queues to buy the essentials such as food and medicine. According to the Final report of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey in 2016, there are 4 million male headed households whilst there are 1.4 million female headed households. The percentage of female headed households accounts for 25.8 % (DCS, 2016). During the lockdown, for the female headed households the burden of generating an income within a short window of time and then ensuring that they manage to buy produce for the next few days becomes even harder.
The Government has introduced a few incentives for frontline workers, government workers and Samurdhi recipients, but there is a larger constituency that does not fall within the given 10 categories of eligible beneficiaries. The female headed households have not been identified as a group eligible for government concessions granted under the current emergency situation, (The Official Page of President of Sri Lanka, 2020) thus require more policy attention at a time like this given they make 25.8% of the households. Thus, it is extremely important to introduce a more effective scheme to support those who are under-resourced at a time like this. It was not surprising that during one of the days that the curfew was lifted our young domestic worker with three kids said that she has not sighted fish during this entire lockdown, neither she was able to cook some for her kids. This makes us think that during these trying times access to nutritious food has also become more challenging for women as their current concern is to buy the basics such as rice, dhal, a few vegetables and spices, this poses a major threat to ensuring the preparation of a balanced nutritious meal for children, women and pregnant mothers.
Safety of female care workers
UN Women in The Covid Outbreak and Gender: Key Advocacy Points from Asia and the Pacific mentions that “globally women constitute 70% of the workers in the health and social sector globally” (UN Women | Asia and the Pacific, 2020). Similarly, we should note that in Sri Lanka the care workforce in the hospitals are predominantly comprised of women, particularly nurses and midwives. These include doctors, nurses and attendants who are currently at the forefront of fighting the pandemic. However, it is difficult to find a gendered breakdown of statistics of number care workers in Sri Lanka. Their working hours have become even more rigorous and demanding at a time like this. UN Sri Lanka together with WHO covered a personal story of a female nurse explaining her challenging work hours stretching from 18-24 hours during these days that gives an insight to the rigorous nature of the work that the female care workers carry out (UN Sri Lanka, 2020). The situation has been further aggravated as some of the frontline workers from a large number of hospitals and wards have been quarantined, thus the remaining staff have to manage with limited staff capacity. There is also a danger that most of them are working mothers, breastfeeding mothers or pregnant women who also have a demanding home front and under these circumstances they find it difficult to spend more time with their children. There have been occasions in which breastfeeding mothers who serve as care workers have been quarantined and they have had to distance themselves from their children. There is evidence globally that women care workers have been working rigorous shifts setting their personal wellbeing and menstrual health needs aside, a fact which remains unseen to most of us.
Picture Courtesy: Zhang Xiaolei/Weibo*
Male breadwinner burden
Let us also not forget about the role that men play within the gender equation. It is within the social construct of men and women, that it is man’s primary responsibility to provide financially for their families and there is both social and cultural pressure to live up to these social expectations. Furthermore, majority of the labour force is consisted of men and are persistently burdened with tending to their families, the current financial anxieties have imposed a huge burden on them. As the work at construction sites, manufacturing companies and businesses have also come to a standstill, they are also equally worried about how they can sustain their family’s needs and maintain a stable income. This is also one reason why some have resorted to other means of earning an income through brewing etc. Thus this issue needs immediate government attention to ease their economic burden.
Thus far, the pandemic has tested the resilience of some of our policies to address gender-specific needs and issues. Sri Lanka’s policy to address the pandemic is mostly mitigation-oriented and thus requires more comprehensive and coherent policy attention to address the negative consequences that affect women. As the government has opened up avenues for mobile services, innovative means can be employed to provide access to medical and legal services for violence against women. Access to sanitary napkins can also be provided under such mobile services and clinics. The current concession schemes can also take female breadwinners and female headed households into account to ensure they have access to food, nutrition and other essential items. Except issuing a few guidelines on provision of maternity care at the hospitals by the GMOA, there have not been any guidelines issued for the police, courts or hospitals on considering domestic violence and violence against women as a priority issue and an essential service. Thus, such interim guidelines and measures are required at a time like this to avoid further victimisation of women. While we still grapple with the existing issues related to addressing violence against women, achieving gender equality and women’s socio-economic empowerment, an exceptional circumstance of this nature would prove that we have been staggeringly slow in achieving these goals over the past decades.
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