With no surprises, the lockdown is a hard time for everyone around the globe. From last 3 months only unhappiness has been distributed by this pandemic. Leading to stress and depression among people, women are suffering more. A gender gap in mental health already existed before but it has now widened to a large extent. Studies show, the fall in mental health among male correspondents is small and statistically insignificant. There are enormous reasons why women are suffering more during covid-19 pandemic. With schools and offices closed women are taking on more child care responsibilities and more homeschooling than men, leading women to give up their jobs entirely. We all know women tend to do more work, like cleaning, cooking even when they are having a house help. Indian women perform nearly 6 to 7 hours unpaid work daily. Meanwhile, men perform less than an hour on average doing same. The psychological impact of the coronavirus outbreak is worse for women who are single women or single moms. These women are providers and have fully burnt up their savings during this lockdown .They are not able to meet their therapists, get medications, resulting in breakdowns and anxiety attacks.
Even if she has kids, parents, siblings or relatives, she is always on her own for most of the time and this emotional void is more gaping in these times. Balancing between the role of caregiver, mother, working lady and managing all household chores, it is very daunting. Women have lost their own time in these crises and to find that back is next to impossible. Women from minority status suffer more because of the issues and stigma that they deal with on a daily basis.
Women are facing harassments on daily basis. Frustrated unemployed and struggling to access alcohol, several men are unloading their anger through physical, verbal and sexual assault. This is affecting millions of women of all classes. Women nutrition has been affected in this pandemic because of shortages of food and financial strain. Unequal accessing of technology is one of the reason for women facing problems in this pandemic. Girls in our country are losing out their online classes, work from home, because of burden of responsibilities. Researchers have reported that many aspects of the Covid-19 economic fallout will likely reduce women employment. Pregnant women struggle to access health care facilities amid Lockdown. Prevalent lockdown rules, closure of private facilities, lack of mobility and disruption in the supply chain have led to limited access to health care for women. Pregnant women seeking doctor supervision are unable to go to Gynecologist because in many hospitals pregnant women are not treated because of fear of infection resulting in deaths. The corona is a disaster for feminism. Almost 50 percent women are reporting side-effects of Lockdown. Women inactivity has increased to a large level. Growing concerns of Post-natal depression (PND) among isolated new mothers are increasing because of the difficult to access treatment places.
The underlying inequalities exacerbate an already difficult situation where women feel they need to be able to show that, they can make things work. The government needs to priorities the needs of women in this pandemic to make it a better society to live in.
Mariya Younis is a student of Journalism and Mass communication at Islamic University of science and technology.
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