Gender Based Violence in Quarantine sectors in the World during COVID-19

 

After COVID-19 was seen, many coutries implemented lockdown. People were forced to stay in home or quarantine. The COVID-19 crisis has thrown these gender-based differences into even sharper relief. Sexual and Gender Based Violence  is a hidden consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. As communities around the world are forced to stay at home, women and girls are at a high risk of domestic violence, intimate partner violence,child abuse, and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence.

Because disasters exacerbate pre-existing gender inequities and power hierarchies, violence in the home may worsen as prolonged quarantine and economic stressors increase tension in the household. Women and girls are isolated from the people and resources that can help them, and they have few opportunities to distance themselves from their abusers.

During epidemics, it’s harder for sexual and reproductive health workers to appropriately screen for sexual and gender-based violence. And referral pathways to care are disrupted.

History shows that domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence increases during crises and disasters. It happened during the 2014-16 Ebola and 2015-16 Zika epidemics, and it appears to be happening now in COVID-19 Pandemic. Under conditions of quarantine or stay-at-home measures, women and children who live with violent and controlling men are exposed to considerably greater danger. Many women are being beaten up by their husband, forced to have sex.

Sexual and gender-based violence does not begin with disasters like COVID-19. But the chaos and instability they cause leave women and girls more vulnerable.

According to the World Health Organisation, 35% of women around the world have already experienced some form of sexual and gender-based violence in their lifetime. In some crisis settings, this number skyrocketed to more than 70%.

Ebola experience

Increases in sexual and gender-based violence were observed during the 2013-2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Estimates concerning the scope are difficult to obtain and vastly under-reported. Survivors of violence were ignored as health workers counted the number of Ebola cases.

According to some reports, Guinea reported a 4.5% increase in sexual and gender-based violence and twice as many rapes. More often than not, this violence was evident only by its devastating consequences for women and girls.

In the aftermath of Ebola, both Sierra Leone and Liberia saw an upswing in teenage pregnancy rates.

The parallels between the response to Ebola and COVID-19 are striking. Public health infrastructure during Ebola came to a grinding halt. In a desperate attempt to control the virus, governments employed many of the current social distancing strategies. These included school closures, curfews, and quarantines.

As Ebola spread throughout West Africa, heavily burdened relief efforts failed to account for particularly vulnerable populations. The needs of women and girls, especially concerning sexual and gender-based violence, were largely ignored in response and recovery planning.

Many organisations waited until Ebola was under control before addressing these needs. By then it was too late.

 

The majority of those on the front lines of the pandemic are women, because women make up 70% of all health and social-services staff globally. They are paid unequally and are facing gender based discrimination in their workplace. Women who are pregnant are not getting enough rest. Globally news are coming that pregnant medical staff are working hard without any break time.

Since COVID-19 attacks more to child and old aged who have weak immunity power. Women also account for the majority of the world’s older population – particularly those over 80 – and thus a majority of potential patients. Yet they tend to have less access to health services than men do. Worse, in several countries that experienced previous epidemics, the provision of sexual- and reproductive-health services – including prenatal and maternal care and access to contraceptives and safe abortions – was reduced as soon as resources needed to be allocated for the crisis. Such defunding has grave consequences for women and girls, and must be prevented at all costs.

Women are particularly vulnerable economically. Globally, women’s personal finances  are weaker than men’s, and their position in the labor market is less secure. Moreover, women are more likely to be single parents who will be hit harder by the economic downturn that is now in full swing. ILO has estimated that due to COVID-19 pandemic, women workers are going to suffer more than male workers as the sectors in which women are being closed rapidly than those sectors in which males are working.

Women who are in isolation ward are being treated very unequally. In Nepal, women living in quarantine was gang raped by medical staff and other persons. In developing countries where quarantine facilities are very bad, women and men are both kept at same room compromising the biological differences and privacy. This type of action is giving birth to gender inequality.

Hence, women are the character who are going to suffer in every problem which is seen by the world. In this type of situation, the international agency and government must be aware and protect the women.

Some parts are adopted from: https://theconversation.com/sexual-and-gender-based-violence-during-covid-19-lessons-from-ebola-137541