When the guidelines were finally issued, they scarcely helped: to enter a hospital, a pregnant woman had to show a recent COVID-negative test result, but since such results typically take at least a day to come, it was not possible for a woman who had started her labour. This effectively denied many women access to institutional deliveries.It has been estimated that as many as 15 per cent of the six million pregnant women who needed critical care in the three months since the lockdown was imposed either could not receive such care or had to face huge difficulties in accessing it.The unfortunate tendency of Indian officialdom to be insensitive to gender concerns was on show from the very announcement of the national lockdown. The list of essential commodities exempt from national lockdown restrictions released in late March 2020 excluded sanitary pads and similar hygienic products, creating confusion and leading to shortages.Some states like Karnataka and Telangana issued their notifications to include sanitary pads in essential commodities, but the lack of clarity from the union government affected production and supplies. The closure of schools similarly affected distribution, and made it impossible for girls from poor families who could not afford to purchase these at higher prices in the market to access them.One study estimated that the closure of family planning services could result in nearly 3 million unintended pregnancies, nearly 2 million abortions (more than half of them unsafe), and several thousand more maternal deaths.Domestic violence was on the increase during lockdowns and afterwards. In the first three weeks of the lockdown alone, calls for help to the National Commission for Women from desperate women facing spousal violence more than doubled from earlier rates. Male family members’ loss of livelihood, anger and frustration at being confined to homes, as well as alcohol abuse, all contributed to the violence.One study using data on reported violence found that increases in domestic violence and cybercrime were most concentrated in districts that saw the strictest lockdown measures. (In the same period, however, rape and sexual assault complaints outside the home fell, largely because of decreased mobility in public spaces, public transport, and workplaces.)
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