The concept of hegemonic masculinity assists us in recognising that the presence of plural masculinities creates hierarchical domination not only between men and women but also between men themselves. Hegemonic masculinity refers to a set of values associated with stereotypical male behaviour that is idealised and assimilated into the cultural behaviour of a particular society. It describes how a specific group of men inhabit positions of power and wealth and use this to legitimise the social relationships that reproduce their dominance. In India, one can assume that heterosexual, upper-class, upper-caste Hindu men function as an example of hegemonic masculinities.
The dominance of this section of men over other religious, class, gender, and caste identities gets exacerbated during a global pandemic. Even under the current circumstances of Covid-19, men belonging to upper-caste and upper-class backgrounds occupy authorial positions and are responsible for executing decisions to combat the destructive virus. Most of the images and media reports on Covid-19 celebrate them for successfully managing the pandemic. However, the reiteration of such imageries ignores factors such as the distribution of care work within a Covid-19 affected family, the implications of quarantine for various people, and the despair faced by all other identities. These are described in detail below.
Women constitute a majority of the healthcare workers worldwide and do most of the unpaid care work that arises because of a limited healthcare structure in India. To avoid overburdening the stretched health facilities in India, many Covid-affected individuals had to quarantine themselves at home. In such situations, it became the responsibility of women in patriarchal settings to take care of the infected family members. This close contact exposed the women more to the virus and caused a disproportionate rate of infections among females compared to males (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2020).
The number of domestic abuse cases also drastically escalated during the pandemic, one of the factors being many men losing their jobs. Since they failed in fulfilling gendered norms of financially providing for their families, they chose to be violent with the women in their house. Men who did earn continued to disregard domestic work and expected women of the families to carry out their supposed duties even though they refused to support them. This notion reinforced the stereotype that paid productive work is superior to unpaid reproductive and domestic work, essentially performed by women. Even when the men did manage to contribute, they indicated that their work and time were superior to the non-earning family members.
Even the LGBTQ+ community suffered because of the aggravation of existing health disparities during the pandemic since healthcare facilities in India are centralised around heterosexual and cisgender people. The community generally has lower levels of health in comparison to the majority of the population owing to the negligence towards their mental and physical health. According to the National Alliance of Mental Health Illness (NAMI), a United States-based advocacy group, queer individuals are three times more likely than heterosexual people to develop mental health conditions such as Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and major depression due to problems such as prejudice, harassment, and social exclusion.
Many members of the LGBTQ+ community end up facing more emotional and mental trauma because of being infected by Covid-19 since there is a lack of sensitisation about gender identities and sexual orientations among medical professionals. A majority of them then merely choose not to report their symptoms because of their unpleasant experiences.
They now face a homelessness crisis since many landlords do not like renting their homes to LGBTQ+ members owing to rampant discrimination and large-scale social stigma. Various reports also claim that the community is now denied entry to their regular places of residence. All this culminates in them residing in highly dense areas with a lack of access to sanitation facilities and failure in acquiring nutritious food. Restricted access prevents them from practicing Covid-preventive strategies that include proper hygiene concerning coughing, wearing masks, social distancing, and frequent hand washing.
Preventive courses of action proposed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to control the spread of Covid-19 also fail to acknowledge various intersectional factors. The medical procedure of social distancing can act as an excuse for privileged sections of society to reinforce caste prejudices in the name of science. India has a history of using social distancing as a predominant principle for regulating caste hierarchies. Social distancing is a representation of the alienation of Dalits based on the concepts of purity and pollution. Rumours of the dangers of meat-eating, the need for good vegetarianism, the infectiousness of migrants, labourers, and domestic servants allowed the segregation and stigmatisation of lower-caste individuals. This evident caste discrimination received legal sanction under the current codes of conduct proposed to combat Covid-19.
In urban regions, people were conscious of communicating with domestic workers and street vendors since they are viewed as probable bearers of the virus. Beliefs like these were strengthened by restating that they practiced poor personal hygiene even though many upper-class individuals readily interacted with their friends and family. Due to not having any other means of income, the poor, including a large section of Dalits, were forced to beg, do menial jobs, and collect leftover food to survive in the situation of lockdown. Even Indian media reported that the migrants who had trekked hundreds of miles to get back home during the first lockdown in March 2020 were sprayed with chemicals. This image reinforced the perception of an unclean ‘untouchable’. Hence, in reality, the medical lockdown turned out to be social in the Indian context and caused the thorough dehumanisation of certain sections of society.
From the above discoveries, it is apparent that men depicting hegemonic masculinities cannot make all decisions regarding policies to combat the pandemic. For the government initiatives to cater to all sections of society, inclusivity is required in decision-making bodies. More data and studies are also necessary to elucidate the specific considerations needed for providing, promoting access, and delivering healthcare services to all Indian citizens.
Evidence generated from studies can assist administrators and policymakers in executing appropriate action for remodelling social protection schemes. With the need for data emerges the requirement of sensitisation to address the internalised prejudices of men in positions of power. This sensitisation will assist them in realising the social circumstances of various deprived communities in India and will lead to considerate communication with them.
As a student of sociology, Nanao has realised that the subject exists everywhere. Now she is on a journey to examine political, cultural, historical, and economic realities through a sociological lens. This voyage has led her to Itisaras. She enjoys studying mythological texts and literature to present alternative opinions to popular narratives. Her love for history has also developed into an interest in exploring monuments around her.
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