Woman-headed families hard hit by COVID-19 lockdown

WOMAN-HEADED households have been the worst affected during the 30day COVID-19 lockdown period, the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) said yesterday.

WCoZ in a statement said the prolonged school closures were already exacerbating existing vulnerabilities and inequalities among children, especially girls, children with disabilities, those in rural areas, orphans and other vulnerable children, as well as those from poor households and fragile families.

Zimbabwe has an estimated population of over 14 million people and threequarters of households were said to be either woman or child-headed.

“We continue to amplify our concern that the majority of women and woman-led households are facing the biggest impact through food-insecurity, income loss and care-giving burdens,” WCoZ said.

“We continue to raise the urgent need for government to ensure that the lockdown is supported with the prioritisation of livelihoods in communities. We are concerned with the silence or lack of communication by Labour, Public Service and Social Welfare ministry regarding safety nets for vulnerable communities during this lockdown,” it said.

WCoZ said for the girl child, schools provided safe spaces as they were less likely to be forced into marriage and to be abused during the lockdown period.

It said even though some schools introduced online learning during the COVID-19 lockdown period, there were various challenges such as the cost of internet data and limited access to radio lessons in rural communities.

Shamwari YeMwanasikana director Ekenia Chifamba said the impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown were felt by women in terms of access to health and failure by the government to provide social safety nets.

She said the suffering was exacerbated for women due to their gender, social standing and power dynamics.

“Being the largest proportion that occupies income-generation spaces, particularly in the informal sectors, women often become significantly affected as rights to operate or conduct business are withdrawn because of regulations such as the lockdown. Being primary carers, women are forced to bear the brunt of providing for their families, hence their significant occupation of the informal sector,” Chifamba said.

She said across the globe, women held less secure jobs and were more likely to be employed in the informal sector.

“Women have less access to social protection systems and their capacity to absorb economic shocks is, therefore, less than that of men. The issues of lockdowns and quarantines significantly reduce women’s economic and livelihood activities and participation which in turn increase poverty rates and food insecurity levels.”