Women must get priority in policymaking

Editorial
Prothom Alo illustration

When the coronavirus pandemic hits the world of gender inequality, vulnerability of the women becomes more prominent. In such circumstances, the International Women’s Day is being observed this year with pledges to move forward and achieve an equal future. For the year 2021, the United Nations has set “Women in leadership: Achieving and equal future in a Covid-19 world’ as the theme to celebrate the global day. On 8 March today, we extend our best wishes and congratulations to all the women of the world including Bangladesh.

The coronavirus-related infection and mortality rates among the women are lower than men, but the social and economic impact of the pandemic on them is in contrast. Women are affected most and become more vulnerable due to the pandemic. In Bangladesh, women cover only 36.3 per cent of the total labour force. Of the women workers, 91.8 per cent do informal jobs. We know that the pandemic has badly affected the informal sector. It means that women are ultimate victims of economic slowdown by the pandemic. When a bread earning woman loses economic power, her social and family status also gets affected.

We can highlight an interesting fact that most of the frontline Covid-19 fighters are women – 94 per cent of the nurses and 90 per cent of the health workers. Despite increased stress of pandemic-time works, the women are looking after their family members as usual. They are also exposed to critical health risks. Women were among the physicians, nurses and health workers died of Covid-19 infection.

A study titled ‘Covid-19 Bangladesh Rapid Gender Analysis’ by the UN Women’s Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group says that women have been deprived of proper treatment and information during the pandemic.

The common forms of discrimination against women have not reduced, rather increased in some cases, in the pandemic. According to government, the trend of child marriage has increased in some regions. There is also an increasing trend of domestic violence, divorce and torture for dowry. All the schools are closed now because of the pandemic. Concerned people suspect that the closure would aggravate the dropout rate while the girls would be the ultimate victims.

The Covid-19 pandemic would affect the consistency of Bangladesh’s success in alleviation of gender inequality and progress of women. So far, Bangladesh is ranked top among the South Asian countries in reducing gender inequality. To continue this success, women issue needs to be prioritized in policymaking as well as budget allocation during the pandemic and post-pandemic periods. Women are supposed to be affected badly because of the deteriorating life standard due to unemployment and loss of income. It will hamper the progress in women’s health and nutrition. We need to pay special attention to this issue. Moreover, there should be effective measures to ensure all-out security of women to continue their progress in the pandemic-hit Bangladesh.