Abstract
AbstractCOVID-19 and its associated disease control measures have greatly altered everyday life. The burden of these challenges has fallen disproportionately on women. Drawing on qualitative inquiry in agrarian north India and Nepal, this research note analyzes how South Asian COVID-19 lockdowns have affected women's labor responsibilities in sometimes surprising ways. We find increased responsibilities for caregiving within the household, substantial stress in responding to food insecurity, and growing expectations to fulfill public roles in disease response measures. However, we also find that the return of male migrants and youth has, in some cases, reduced women's farming responsibilities and created opportunities for household togetherness at a time of great uncertainty. We conclude that more research is needed to examine the nuanced aspects of COVID-19's gendered labor impacts to create comprehensive policy responses to address the multiple and sometimes conflicting effects the lockdown has had on agrarian women's informal labor and well-being.
Highlights
COVID-19 and its associated disease control measures have greatly altered everyday life
We conclude that more research is needed to examine the nuanced aspects of COVID-19’s gendered labor impacts to create comprehensive policy responses to address the multiple and sometimes conflicting effects the lockdown has had on agrarian women’s informal labor and well-being
Our data are drawn from qualitative fieldwork conducted from March to June 2020 in 16 villages in Nepal and Himachal Pradesh (HP), India
Summary
COVID-19 and its associated disease control measures have greatly altered everyday life The burden of these challenges has fallen disproportionately on women. Drawing on qualitative inquiry in agrarian north India and Nepal, this research note analyzes how South Asian COVID-19 lockdowns have affected women’s labor responsibilities in sometimes surprising ways. Across South Asia, women’s unpaid labor burden is stark, with women averaging six hours per day compared with men’s one hour (OECD 2020). These disparities are attributable to strictly enforced patriarchal labor roles and to the fact that large numbers of men and children work and study in cities, so women assume more responsibility for agriculture and. While this is often referred to as the “feminization of agriculture,” South Asian scholars have argued compellingly that a more apt conceptual frame is the “feminization of agrarian distress,” given the poorly remunerative state of agriculture in South Asia along with poor village services and infrastructure (Pattnaik et al 2018)
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