GBV-RELATED CHALLENGES INTENSIFIED BY THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AMONG WOMEN AND GIRLS WITH DISABILITIES

GBV (Gender Based Violence) is a big problem facing different people worldwide. GBV, simply put, refers to any harmful acts directed at an individual based on their gender. It’s important to understand that anyone can be a victim of this kind of violence. GBV can manifest in sexual, physical, mental and economic forms. GBV can also occur through threats of violence, coercion, manipulation and many other ways as long as they inflict harm (Gender-based Violence ). Women and girls are already the biggest victims of GBV but women and girls living with disabilities are estimated to suffer ten times more compared to women and girls without disabilities (GANDINI, 2019). The common perception of people living with disabilities as helpless is a major contender for these bazaar statistics.

GBV (Gender Based Violence) is a big problem facing different people worldwide. GBV, simply put, refers to any harmful acts directed at an individual based on their gender. It’s important to understand that anyone can be a victim of this kind of violence. GBV can manifest in sexual, physical, mental and economic forms. GBV can also occur through threats of violence, coercion, manipulation and many other ways as long as they inflict harm (Gender-based Violence ). Women and girls are already the biggest victims of GBV but women and girls living with disabilities are estimated to suffer ten times more compared to women and girls without disabilities (GANDINI, 2019). The common perception of people living with disabilities as helpless is a major contender for these bazaar statistics.

The most outstanding indicator of lack of financial support particularly in Uganda is the current criteria for the distribution of “Covid money”. COVID money is given to people the Uganda government considers vulnerable because of the imposed lockdown. The government in this lockdown is targeting people who used to earn daily but are now tied to their homes because of the pandemic particularly in cities and municipalities (Xinhua, 2021). As much as it is a good initiative, it has left out very crucial groups of people who did not even have livelihoods in the first place. Groups like women and girls with disabilities are striving to make it in a very unequal setting. These are people who have been discriminated against from the time they were born and now according to the government’s criteria, they don’t fall into the vulnerable group as well.

Another challenge arising from this lockdown is violence against these women and children dealing with disabilities going unreported. One of the biggest contributors to this challenge is the very questionable belief that people living with disabilities are asexual which means they do not or cannot get involved in sexual activity. Such beliefs have made them very easy targets by perpetrators who are aware of the fact that no one will believe them when they do report. Reporting is also a lucky occurrence because of the current lockdown. They are tied to one place and have no means to reporting centres when they do decide to take action.

These challenges have exposed these women and children with disabilities to even more GBV as they try to find means of survival. Therefore women and children with disabilities need even more support and attention now than ever before because for the rest of the world, it just got tough, and in their world, it’s always been tough.