- The female poverty rate in South Asia will increase in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and more women than men in the 25-34 age group will be poorer in the next decade, according to new data released by the UN.
- The UN Women and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said that the COVID-19 pandemic will disproportionately affect women and push 47 million more women and girls into extreme poverty by 2021, reversing decades of progress to lift this demographic above the poverty line.
- The report, ‘From Insights to Action: Gender Equality in the wake of COVID-19’, said that the gender poverty gap will worsen further still in South Asia.
- Central and Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, home to 87% of the world’s extreme poor, will see the largest increases in extreme poverty, with an additional 54 million and 24 million people, respectively, living below the international poverty line as a result of the pandemic.
- The pre-pandemic female poverty rate in South Asia was projected to be 10% in 2021 but is now expected to reach 13%.
- Moreover, before the pandemic, projections for the region suggested that by 2030 only 15.8% of the world’s poor women and girls would be living in South Asia.
- The revised projections now put that figure at 18.6%, the report said.
- The report pointed out that the resurgence of poverty due to the pandemic threatens to deepen gender poverty gaps, especially for people aged 25 to 34, which is a key productive and family formation period for both women and men.
- In 2021, it is expected there will be 118 women in poverty for every 100 poor men globally, and this ratio could rise to 121 poor women for every 100 poor men by 2030.
- Globally, the poverty rate for women was expected to decrease by 2.7% between 2019 and 2021, but projections now point to an increase of 9.1% due to the pandemic and its fallout.
- Women take most of the responsibility for caring for the family; they earn less, save less and hold much less secure jobs — in fact, overall, women’s employment is 19% more at risk than men’s.
- Recommendations to prevent women from falling behind permanently because of the pandemic range from
- addressing occupational segregation, gender pay gaps and inadequate access to affordable childcare
- to introducing economic support packages for vulnerable women
- to countries increasing social protection measures targeting women and girls and
- Expanding research and data availability on the gendered impacts of COVID-19.
