The impact of Covid-19 on women and girls with disabilities

The measures to tackle the spread of Covid-19 pandemic are exacerbating existing gender and disability-based inequalities. In this blog, our Chief Executive Kirsty Smith outlines the additional challenges being faced by women and girls with disabilities during this time.

“We are now having difficulties to live our lives… If I ask my husband to do something, he gets upset and starts to quarrel with me saying what he can do as he can’t go outside and drive Rickshaw on the road. I am in a dire situation with my two children… I can’t sleep at night with all these tensions. The pain in my eyes is also increasing day by day as I can’t buy medicine for the treatment.” – Munni, Bangladesh

“My husband used to work in a wood factory, which has been closed down due to the coronavirus epidemic. Besides, I used to do needle work… and sell them… But currently I can’t sell them due to the coronavirus situation. Also I can’t buy raw materials for needle work as the markets are closed…. Because of all these reasons, my family is experiencing lots of hardship right now.” – Provati, Bangladesh

Munni and Provati voice some of the experiences of being a woman with a disability managing the circumstances Covid-19 have thrust upon them. Whilst these experiences are echoed in populations across the world, the Covid-19 pandemic is exacerbating inequalities and discrimination experienced by women and girls with disabilities.

Accessibility of information is the first step in combatting the virus; yet gender and disability play a significant part in who is left out. In Afghanistan, one rapid assessment found that 41% of female respondents compared to 22% of male had received no information about Covid-19.[i] For women and girls with disabilities there are additional challenges in accessing vital information about the virus. Feedback from Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) in Africa has indicated that deaf women and girls in particular have little information about the pandemic beyond the need to stay home, with no information about symptoms or measures for protection. This lack of knowledge has had an impact when presenting at hospital, including for pregnant women with disabilities, where Covid-19 symptoms may not be differentiated from other symptoms and where interpretation may not be available – leaving these women at greater risk of harm where they have the virus undetected.[ii]

The impact of Covid-19 mitigation measures, such as lockdown, is beginning to be felt heavily, even where levels of the virus have been comparatively low. Munni and Provati’s experiences of economic hardship are all too common for informal sector workers, many of who are women with disabilities and older women, and who are also often excluded from traditional social protection measures.[iii] There is also evidence of a difference in how men and women typically manage with stretched finances – one study in Bangladesh found that women are more likely than men to restrict expenditure and thus reduce consumption of food and sanitation supplies; whereas men are more likely to borrow money from friends or relatives (65% compared to 43% of women[iv]) – which may speak to men’s greater economic bargaining power.

The negative impact of the pandemic on children’s education throughout the world risks compounding existing inequalities, whereby only a third of girls with disabilities complete primary education[v]. This is why CBM has adapted its work on the Supporting Adolescent Girls’ Education (SAGE) programme in Zimbabwe. SAGE provides high-quality non-formal education to marginalised girls through community-based learning hubs. CBM’s role in the consortium is to ensure that children with disabilities are supported to access the education and to receive the tailored teaching, resources, and assistive devices they need. The programme is now providing accessible health information and house to house visits to girls with disabilities, and maintaining the girls’ learning through phone calls; and is working towards facilitating the eventual safe return to schools.

The work of the Disability Rights Advocacy Center (DRAC), a CBM partner in Nigeria, has become even more important since lockdown has caused a significant increase in levels of domestic violence. The Centre has adapted its activities to include the distribution of relief packages, e-learning and online consultations through its Break the Cycle programme, which addresses the drivers of violence against women and girls with disabilities; and online meetings with beneficiaries to check on their welfare.

We are still in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic and naturally there are gaps in evidence of the overall nature and extent of impact on women and girls with disabilities. Previous pandemics have shown that women and girls, and people with disabilities are treated as separate groups without intersectional analysis which means that it is then difficult to track trends and respond to issues in the most appropriate way.[vi] Amongst the increasing amounts of literature being published are a number of (logical) assumptions and projections, including in the UN’s policy brief Leaving no one behind: the COVID-19 crisis through the disability and gender lens (UN website – open in new tab), about risks and likely impacts of the pandemic on women and girls with disabilities, but these need to be followed up with rigour and further analysis.

It is also important not to overly pre-determine the narrative on the impact of the pandemic on gender and disability. Several Women’s Rights Organisations and Disabled Person’s Organisations point to the dangers of stereotyping women and girls with disabilities simply as ‘a vulnerable group’ of passive recipients, which can reinforce stigma and harmful attitudes.[vii]  Many DPOs including those with whom CBM partners, have proved resilient to change and successfully adapted their work in representation and support for members.

What the pandemic reinforces, however, is the existence of structural inequalities that make the social and economic restrictions imposed unequally challenging for some groups. This is particularly the case for women and girls with disabilities. In responding to the pandemic, governments and other bodies must not abandon efforts in furthering disability inclusion and gender equality but embed them into the current response and longer term recovery planning, and ensure that the voices of women and girls with disabilities are at the core of policy and action. For the UK Government in particular, as the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office emerges in the autumn, it must retain committed to current strategies on disability inclusion and gender equality.

Image: Fitriani is a 26 year old woman with a disability, whose life changed after becoming a beneficiary of FBA (Forum Bangun Aceh), a CBM project in Aceh Province, Indonesia. She has been sewing masks to protect people in her community from Covid-19. 

[i] COVID19 Crisis response: Rapid assessment report. Street Child, May 2020

[ii] The experience of persons with disabilities with COVID-19: A short qualitative research study carried out 1 May to 5 June 2020. Stakeholder Group of Persons with Disabilities for Sustainable Development.

[iii] Written submission to International Development Select Committee. Gender and Development Network (GADN), May 2020

[iv] Street Child.

[v] World Report on Disability. World Health Organisation and The World Bank, 2011

[vi] The impacts of COVID-19 on people with disabilities: a rapid review. Disability Inclusion Helpdesk Query No. 35. Jessie Meany-Davis, Harri Lee and Nick Corby, April 2020.

[vii] GADN