COMMENT | Same prison, different hells - Why lockdowns hurt women more

COMMENT | Earlier this week, Dr David Nabarro from the World Health Organisation appealed to world leaders to avoid using lockdowns as the primary method in their battles against Covid-19. According to him, lockdowns have “one consequence that you must never ever belittle and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer”.

However, that’s not entirely true, isn’t it? Not the whole truth at least.

While the impacts of lockdowns are extremely punishing towards individuals from the lower-income group, a lockdown does more than just that. The unintended consequences of a lockdown are almost as indiscriminate as the virus itself, paralysing women, across all age groups and social classes, physically and mentally.

Women who served either as essential or informal workers, such as doctors, nurses, and street vendors are all at heightened risk of violence as they navigate deserted public spaces and transportation services under lockdown.

Women who are trapped at home, on the other hand, are now either at an increased risk of domestic violence or subjected to an increased level of unpaid domestic workload.

The inevitable economic impacts that trail behind lockdowns are also likely to expose girls and adolescent girls to...