Analysing the pandemic and the subsequent gender divide

Analysing the pandemic and the subsequent gender divide

Women and girls across the world have been disproportionately affected in the year of the pandemic, not in terms of the impact of the virus, but more so socially and economically. Kanika Jha Kingra from IWWAGE and Surbhi Singh from The Quantum Hub (TQH),  in an article published by The Indian Express, write about how India’s female workforce was largely invisible, underpaid, under-protected and constituted the largest segment of the informal workforce, which is among the worst-hit this year. Read the article here.

Women@Work series: How the pandemic affected women workers in the Indian capital

Women@Work series: How the pandemic affected women workers in the Indian capital

India’s labour force participation rate was 50.2% according to PLFS, 2018-19. The pandemic seems to have further pushed people out of work. In the latest edition of IWWAGE’s ‘Women@Work’ series, IndiaSpend examines the situation for women workers in Delhi – envisioned as a world-class city – where employment rates (and attitudes) have been nearly static since 1981. While women’s work participation has been long invisibilised, the pandemic hit Delhi’s informal workers hard and many women lost jobs. Read the full report here.

Can COVID-19 change social protection in India for the better?

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COVID-19 has exposed the glaring holes in India’s social welfare delivery system. LEAD’s Raka De and Anjani Balu pen down this piece on the deficiencies in the current architecture and suggest how the pandemic may prove to be an impetus for strengthening last-mile delivery of welfare benefits and services in India.