NYT highlights the devastating effect of economic wreckage brought by Coronavirus on Indian women

As the economies across the world have tailed-off, economists predict that women, in particular, will face a setback. At the workplace, decades of improvement in the inequalities between the sexes might be undone due to the pandemic.

The International Labour Organisation found that 41 percent of women were employed in sectors at high risk for job or working-hour losses from the pandemic. Men, in comparison, are employed in 35 percent of those jobs.

In addition, the NYT reported that the global slowdown could have especially stark consequences in developing countries, where around 70 percent of working women are employed in the informal economy.

Already in India women were facing grave inequalities at the workplace, and the pandemic has exacerbated their circumstances. Women were more likely to report anxiety about their futures among the employed, fearing they might be laid-off instantly.

The report also highlighted that arranged marriages may increase, with families seeing these unions as a way to secure their daughter’s future amid the economic wreckage. Matrimonial websites have seen 30 percent surge in new registrations.

It is estimated that the Indian economy may contract by five percent this year. With the economy in a slump, female migrant workers might struggle to persuade their parents to leave their villages for jobs and defer marriage.