We were recently surprised by the report that suggested youth were more likely to suffer from loneliness than the elderly.
Something that we couldn’t have thought of – the young with age by their side, sweet ambitions, nursing passion and their zest to learn.
But the truth is something else. Now if we think about genders, we already know women tend to shoulder more responsibilities than their male counterparts.
This multitasking takes a toll and now a study has confirmed that women are suffering far greater at the hands of lockdown loneliness than men.
The study was conducted by the economists working at the University of Essex, which highlighted that women could be facing more mental health issues than men, during the Covid crisis.
With Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide not even a day, we all know how mental health is taking a toll during lockdown.
The study also focused on how more people are reporting mental health issues than before – as per official data, issues have gone up from 7% to 18% during the coronavirus pandemic.
This holds specifically true for women, where the figures have gone up from 11 to 27 per cent during lockdown.
The pressure is high clearly as they are taking care of domestic chores, children as well as their jobs.
The researchers did online interviews to assess behavioural patterns. Out of all women, 34 per cent said they felt lonely sometimes, 11 per cent said they felt lonely quite a lot in comparison to men, where 23 per cent said they felt lonely sometimes and 6 per cent said they felt lonely quite often.
This isn’t the first research that has highlighted the surmounting pressure on women. That is why experts all around the world are requesting men to equally contribute to household chores.
Rearing a child, house chores are all considered a woman’s task, and men ‘help’ when they want to.
This approach needs to change and we need more men who are willing to shoulder responsibilities, not as they please, but as an equal partner.