“We do not want charity, we just need support so that we can stand up on our feet again.”—SEWA group member, India.

The COVID-19 pandemic has tested virtually everyone in some way—but especially the strength and resilience of women in the world’s rural areas. To mark the 2020 International Day of Rural Women (Oct. 15), here we explore some of the burdens the pandemic has imposed on rural women and potential ways to lighten them.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) defines resilience as “the ability of people, households, communities, countries, and systems to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from shocks and stresses in a manner that reduces chronic vulnerability and facilitates inclusive growth.” Numerous studies show that women and men experience shocks differently and have different capabilities in responding to them. For instance, evidence from Uganda indicates that a rise in food prices negatively affected assets held by women or jointly. Women generally have limited access to financial services and information, and lower levels of mobility and literacy compared to men, which constrains their ability to rebuild after a shock.

In this respect, COVID-19 is no different from other disasters.

In many countries, measures instituted to stop the spread of the pandemic have likely created disproportionate burdens on women. For instance, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends staying up-to-date with the latest COVID-19 information, yet rural women typically have lower levels of literacy and less access to communication technologies than men. In telephone interviews with members of the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in Gujarat, we found that women’s mobile phones were one of the first expenses to be cut from household budgets in the pandemic. Further, women’s loss of access to mobile phones may exacerbate the existing gendered digital divide, which may have ramifications for women’s resilience throughout the duration of the pandemic and beyond.

COVID-19 hygiene precautions such as increased hand-washing also fall disproportionately on women and girls, given gendered divisions of labor within the household. In fact, in another survey examining the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown in 12 states across India, 47% of households reported that women were spending more time fetching water. In addition, of households that use wood for fuel, 50% reported that women were spending more time collecting firewood than they did before the pandemic—indicating rural women are overwhelmingly bearing the brunt of rural distress. Women have also been reported to experience increasing incidents of domestic violence as psychological stress owing to loss of employment and livelihoods affects families.

IFPRI researchers are exploring ways to adapt and create transformative social protection schemes to enhance rural women’s resilience during the pandemic and beyond, working with organizations like the World Food Program, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, which has an established gender policy. Hidrobo et al noted that though governments were swift to implement pandemic-related social protection initiatives, only 11% of initial responses indicated some gender sensitivity. While rapid assistance is helpful, largely gender-blind social protection schemes may inadvertently exacerbate gender inequalities, especially for rural women. To enhance the resilience of rural women as the pandemic continues to unfold, Hidrobo et al provide a number of recommendations, including, but not limited to:

• Adapt existing programs to reduce women’s barriers to uptake. For example, given that women and children are typically the first to reduce their food consumption in a crisis and that women may be responsible for daily shopping, focusing on in-kind transfers may benefit rural women where mobility is restricted, markets are limited, food prices spike, or COVID-19 restrictions induce supply chain closures.
• Adapt targeting of programs to women. Unemployment insurance largely does not cover informal workers, yet the majority of women work in informal sectors. Universal household-level transfers, in conjunction with targeting women as the named recipient, may reach more vulnerable people—especially women.
• Expand delivery options to be gender-sensitiveto rural women’s needs. Though more programs are utilizing mobile technologies to deliver services, women’s access to such technologies continues to lag behind that of men.

Existing women’s groups are an additional platform through which women can help themselves and each other. Our partners in India—SEWA and Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN)—are using their network of women’s groups to promote relief and rehabilitation activities, along with existing programs that support women’s access to livelihood opportunities, agriculture extension and services, health care and formal sources of credit.

SEWA has been working to connect members with government programs such as the public distribution system to obtain subsidized food grains. Migrant households and women, especially those belonging to marginalized communities, are less likely to have the proper documentation required to access such services. Both SEWA and PRADAN have prioritized women’s access to proper nutrition by distributing dry ration food kits and setting up community kitchens, respectively.

The organizations are also working to increase awareness of COVID-19 preventive measures and distribute masks and sanitizers, as well as ensuring that maternal and other basic health needs are met. Most importantly, women’s groups and collectives have played a key role in pandemic crisis recovery, by allowing women to share information, resources and social networks. Even though women-owned collective enterprises may be negatively impacted, SEWA Director Reema Nanavaty, notes that they have quickly adapted and responded to women’s needs during the crisis, helping to promote resilience.

Women also need to protect their own mental health and resilience. Fortunately, women’s groups may provide that opportunity as well. A recent study in 158 villages in eight districts across five Indian states found that young mothers who were members of self-help groups were 27% less likely to report mental health problems than those who were not group members. Women who reported their primary occupation as “farmer” were also far less likely to report poor mental health compared to women who reported their primary occupation as “housewife.” Unsurprisingly, women from food insecure households had poorer mental health than women from food secure households.

Although these findings are specific to rural India, they offer important lessons for building rural women’s resilience worldwide: Enhance women’s choices and ability to participate in agricultural activities and work outside the home; boost public and private investments in organizations that promote women’s groups; and ensure that food-based social safety nets reach resource-poor and food insecure households.

Emily Myers is a Research Analyst with IFPRI’s Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division (PHND); Muzna Alvi is an Associate Research Fellow with IFPRI’s Environment and Production Technology Division, based in our South Asia Office in New Delhi; Agnes Quisumbing is a PHND Senior Research Fellow.