Amidst the nationwide lockdown, courtesy the coronavirus, India’s formal sector is also experiencing a meltdown. A dwindling economy is not helping either. Over 136 million non-agricultural jobs may see a cutdown as per the National Sample Survey and Periodic Labour Force Surveys released on March 31. Over the last two weeks, the media industry saw several big publications folding up verticles, sending employees on ‘leave without pay’, cutting down on salary despite being one of the essential services during the lockdown. Because of the stay at home directive, manufacturing companies which depend on the manual labour force, companies into experimental projects that require to work in laboratories can’t function either.
But for working women, the struggle doesn’t end with workplace issues and stress of the situation, as they now may have to fight the very battles with patriarchy for empowerment all over again, which they had won in the last few decades. We spoke to working women from across various fields to get a bigger and better picture of their struggle during these uncertain and stressful times.
