17 April 2020, NIICE Commentary 4137
Akanksha Khullar
After nearly four years of stalemate, the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has come together to map out a joint strategy against the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The central aspects of it includes economic assistance, information sharing and capacity building. However, while it is extremely crucial to integrate the health and economic consequences of the pandemic through regional mitigation and response strategies, it is also important to consider the negative psycho-social implications that the crisis has brought along. It is no longer a myth that the upheaval of COVID-19 is deepening pre-existing inequalities and exposing vulnerabilities in social, political and economic systems throughout South Asia, which in turn, is disproportionately affecting different sections of the society—especially the women of the region. But despite the hardship, these women remain missing from SAARC’s COVID-19 diplomacy and decision-making processes. In order to adequately address the hurdles that these women face, the first step is to make women a central part of the regional decision-making bodies and COVID-19 policy formulation and implementation.
Need for Women’s Inclusion
Women account for nearly half of the population in almost all the SAARC member countries and—like their male counterparts—have a right to be included in preparing and implementing strategies designed to deal with the COVID-19 upheaval as well as in longer-term recovery planning. The current female population of Sri Lanka is 10,751,298 (50.7 percent) as compared to the male population of 10,470, 474 (49.3 percent). Similarly, there are 15,201,014 (50.4 percent) women in Nepal against 14,959,926 (49.6 percent) men. However, only 5.7 percent of women are serving in the 15th Parliament (2015-2020) session of Sri Lanka and the proportion of seats held by women in national Parliaments of Nepal stands at 33 per cent, which is the highest in South Asia.
Nonetheless, considering that SAARC conferences are limited to the senior government officials of the member states, only a handful of these women actually get the opportunity to put across their concerns. But, as a matter of fact, no response or recovery measures can be successful if a significant number of the population residing in the region is being left out, as this essentially means neglecting half of the talent pool that can be resourceful in the fight against the crisis. Thus, for SAARC to develop a more robust and inclusive pandemic control approach, it needs to ensure that women’s voices are heard at the decision-making table, thereby granting them equal representation and leadership opportunities.
More importantly, the pandemic entails profoundly different implications for men and women, where women are being disproportionately affected, owing to their already disadvantageous positions within the South Asian societies. This has become glaringly visible especially in the health care systems as during an emergency like this, medical professionals and health care workers are at the forefront of treating the infected cases. Thus, their direct or indirect exposure to the deadly virus is much more. Like elsewhere in the world, even in South Asia, majority of workers in the health and social care sector are women, which makes them disproportionately vulnerable to contracting the disease. However, since
these women rarely make it to the leadership or governance level of the medical profession, the peculiar gendered impacts of the widespread health crisis have continued to be ignored. Moreover, the regional emergency policies has not yet considered prioritising the unique health or safety needs of women. As a result, during the virtual meeting of senior health professionals of SAARC member nations that convened on 26th March, there was no discussion about the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the South Asian women.
Similarly, economic recession as a result of crisis means job lay offs and pay cuts. As part-timers and informal workers are among the first ones to be suspended, women in South Asia stand at a greater risk of being heavily and disproportionately affected. According to the UN Women, over 80 percent of women in non-agricultural jobs are in informal employment within the South Asian region and have fewer protections against sudden dismissals.
However, despite women occupying a major chunk of the informal sector in the South Asian economy and the unprecedented challenges they confront, due to the rising uncertainties, SAARC has not released any fiscal stimulus package to offer financial safety or future economic opportunities for these women. Nonetheless, without women in leadership positions, subsequent decisions will not adequately address the difficulties that have been surfacing for women across the region due to the pandemic. Hence, to make sure that funding and research for the medical systems, economic relief packages and social assistance programmes—all entail an equal gender-based lens, and SAARC member nations must empower their women with leadership opportunities.
Way Forward
While, the immediate focus is on curbing the spread of the virus, SAARC’s commitment to include women in decision-making roles should not be an exception but a norm. It has been rightly pointed out by António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, “gender equality and women’s rights are essential to getting through this pandemic together, to recovering faster, and to building a better future for everyone.” There are two ways in which the SAARC could achieve this, first, by placing more women in the SAARC Ministerial-level group, which was proposed by the Sri Lankan President during the initial videoconference session of the member nations; and secondly, by going beyond targeting individual women and regularly consulting with women’s organizations who are at the front line of the COVID-19 response. Besides these , by following the gender directives and respecting women’s right, SAARC could even utilise the crisis situation as an opportunity to rejuvenate the organisation and transform its much-tarnished image.
