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Precarity in a Time of Uncertainty: Gendered Employment Patterns during the Covid-19 Lockdown in India

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  • Sonalde Desai
  • Neerad Deshmukh
  • Santanu Pramanik

Abstract

India implemented one of the world’s most stringent lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 crisis. This study examines whether the impacts of the lockdown on employment differed by gender in areas surrounding Delhi. An ongoing monthly employment survey between March 2019 and May 2020 allows for comparison before and after lockdown. Estimates based on random-effects logistic regression models show that for men, the predicted probability of employment declined from 0.88 to 0.57, while for women it fell from 0.34 to 0.22. Women’s concentration in self-employment may be one reason why their employment was somewhat protected. However, when looking only at wage workers, the study finds that women experienced greater job losses than men with predicted probability of employment declining by 72 percent for women compared to 40 percent for men. The findings highlight the gendered impacts of macro crises and inform policy considerations through ongoing phases of lockdowns and relaxation.HIGHLIGHTSOngoing survey data reveals gendered changes in employment before and during India’s pandemic lockdown.Results show substantial decline in employment for men and women during the lockdown period.Absolute decline in employment was larger for men than for women.However, broad comparisons mask gender differences in impact on different industries and occupations.Comparing only wage workers, employment decline was far greater for women than for men.

Suggested Citation

  • Sonalde Desai & Neerad Deshmukh & Santanu Pramanik, 2021. "Precarity in a Time of Uncertainty: Gendered Employment Patterns during the Covid-19 Lockdown in India," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1-2), pages 152-172, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:27:y:2021:i:1-2:p:152-172
    DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2021.1876903
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Ishaan Bansal & Kanika Mahajan, 2021. "COVID-19, Income Shocks and Female Employment," Working Papers 69, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    2. Bhattacharya, Rudrani & Mundle, Sudipto, 2021. "A nowcast of 2021-22 GDP growth and forecast for 2022-23 based on a Factor Augmented Time Varying Coefficients Regression Model," Working Papers 21/361, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    3. Farzana Afridi & Kanika Mahajan & Nikita Sangwan, 2022. "Employment Guaranteed? Social Protection During a Pandemic," Oxford Open Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 1, pages 1-15.
    4. Biswas, Shreya & Das, Upasak, 2022. "Adding fuel to human capital: Exploring the educational effects of cooking fuel choice from rural India," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    5. Ana Tribin & Karen García-Rojas & Paula Herrera-Idarraga & Leonardo Fabio Morales & Natalia Ramirez-Bustamante, 2023. "Shecession: The Downfall of Colombian Women During the Covid-19 Pandemic," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 158-193, October.
    6. Farzana Afridi & Amrita Dhillon & Sanchari Roy, 2021. "The gendered crisis: livelihoods and mental well-being in India during COVID-19," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-65, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Nadia Singh & Areet Kaur, 2022. "The COVID‐19 pandemic: Narratives of informal women workers in Indian Punjab," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 388-407, March.
    8. Valerie Mueller & Karen Grépin & Atonu Rabbani & Anne Ngunjiri & Amy Oyekunle & Clare Wenham, 2023. "Domestic Burdens Amid Covid-19 and Women’s Mental Health in Middle-Income Africa," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 192-218, April.
    9. Bina Agarwal, 2022. "Imperatives of recognising the complexities: gendered impacts and responses to COVID-19 in India," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(1), pages 31-53, April.
    10. Lisa R. Roberts & Shreeletha Solomon & Solomon J. Renati & Susanne Montgomery, 2021. "Exploring Mental Health during the Initial COVID-19 Lockdown in Mumbai: Serendipity for Some Women," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-17, November.
    11. Mattos, Fernanda Bárcia de & Dasgupta, Sukti & Esquivel, Valeria & Ghani, Sajid, 2022. "Push and Pull Factors and Women's Rural Employment in India since Covid-19," Review of Agrarian Studies, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, vol. 12(2), December.
    12. Valerie Mueller & Camila Páez-Bernal & Clark Gray & Karen Grépin, 2023. "The Gendered Consequences of COVID-19 for Internal Migration," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(4), pages 1-37, August.
    13. Corsi, Marcella & Ilkkaracan, Ipek, 2022. "COVID-19, Gender and Labour," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1012, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    14. Maria Victoria Uribe Bohorquez & Isabel María García Sánchez, 2023. "Sustainability in times of crisis: Female employment during COVID‐19," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(6), pages 3124-3139, November.
    15. Nitya Mittal & Janina Isabel Steinert & Sebastian Vollmer, 2023. "COVID-19 pandemic, losses of livelihoods and uneven recovery in Pune, India," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.

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