Mantan Kepala Program Antikorupsi UNODC, mantan Direktur Kemitraan, pemerhati kebijakan lingkungan dan isu-isu keadilan, pendiri industri bambu berbasis desa dengan Yayasan Bambu Lestari.
The Gap’s Widening
There is no doubt of the impact that Covid-19 has had at the macro and micro level, especially its impact towards women as individuals, women as mothers, and women as the breadwinners.
Prior to Covid-19 pandemic, we were permissive with the fact that Indonesia’s figures in women’s participation in the economic sector was already much lesser than that of men. A simple, striking indicator is expenditure. In 2018 per capita spending for men was Rp 15.5 million, while women’s expenditure per capita was only Rp 9 million. Additionally, overall data of Indonesia Statistic Bureau’s 2018 Human Development Index shows that gender inequality in rural areas is three times worse than in urban areas.
Poverty exacerbates and perpetuates gender inequality and social exclusion. Poverty in rural areas is multi-dimensional, due to limited access to resources such as land, clean water, food, capital, education and knowledge and networks. Moreover, the workload of rural women is heavier than women in urban areas, due to limited resources. Women in the rural areas need more than four hours just to get clean water, adding to the extra burden as the food provider for the family. While women in the urban poor areas have to pay clean water at the highest price.
In deprived situations, women, children and marginalized communities are vulnerable to becoming victims of domestic violence, human rights violations, and exploitation, such as human trafficking and child marriage.
The World We Want
The fact of the matter is, due to Covid-19 pandemic, the gender inequality has widened. Furthermore, the pandemic is rapidly exposing poverty and the widening and deepening of the gender gap. Again, nothing is new, but the alert to the world that we need to reset all walks of life, and the reset password is CHANGE.
The context of women in the year of Covid-19 has brought myself trying to see things from many angles with the imagination that Covid-19 is the earth’s reset button. We can no longer address the challenges in silo, whether pandemic, climate, biodiversity on the brink, poverty, gender gap, trade, technology, etc.
The fact of the matter is, due to Covid-19 pandemic, the gender inequality has widened.
Monica Tanuhandaru
We can and we have the opportunities to collectively create the new world we want that is more just, fair, healthier, sustainable and more prosperous for all.
In a nutshell, we need the people, public and private sectors, to make cohesive, integrated, accountable and bold collective policies and actions.
We want to address the gender inequality in all sectors: right, front and center;
We want actions to address sustainability, conservation and biodiversity;
We want action on climate justice;
We want universal health care systems;
We want an education to nurture human and its humanity;
We want to address mental health issues (as the next impact of the pandemic);
We want healthy environments and natural ecosystems as public space.
I also call 2020 as the year of humanity and solidarity with people demonstrating elongated kindness beyond race, religion, society, and that is a sign of hope.
I made my list, what’s yours?
Jakarta, Desember 2020
