There is a survey held in the Maldives in order to find the COVID-19 response, especially in women’s.
In the Maldives, around 7,500 formerly banned women informal workers have been included in an Income Support Allowance programme, mental health is being improved, and two government campaigns were impressed by the data collected by the gendered impacts of the pandemic.
Two government campaign companies, ‘UN Women and the Maldives National Bureau of Statistics (MNBS), who collaborated with the private sector telecommunications providers Ooredoo and Dhiraagu to administer a Rapid Gender Assessment (RGA).
The survey was held in 2020 April, and they received a total of 4,753 responses. A regional resource page was made in a bid to collect a data Hub in April, featuring data and a story with preliminary findings from the Maldives in May, followed by a full regional report. However, the report was published in June on the MNBS website.
“The Minister has supported the use of data for executing programmes, especially under the mandate of the social programme,” adds Fathimath Yumna, Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Gender, Family and Social Services (MoGFSS), but “it’s not just our Ministry that is utilising this data, because the economic factor is there, the social element is there.”
Furthermore, MNBS highlighted the RGA findings. For instance, there is 26 percent of women who lost their jobs, and 54 percent of women, as compared to 40 percent of men, were those who faced a reduction in their incomes.
The programme started in June 2020, and from that time, they are noticing that the women are actually suffering a lot because of lack of support as compared to men. Many women informal workers did not qualify because they were not previously registered as being employed.
Furthermore, Yamna stated that “What was reflected in this RGA discussed in stakeholder meetings, as well as how we increase women’s income support and train them to obtain documentation”, and added that “We want to ensure that they were eligible.
However, a few weeks later, the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) deducted the documentation required documentation in order to qualify for the programme, and it made it easier for women informal workers to apply.
As per the RGA research, which finds that women’s mental health had become more affected as compared to men’s, the data indicates that6 68 percent of women are suffering as compared to 56 percent men respectively.
As per the Ministry data, domestic violence cases are increasing rapidly in the country.
