Academic Article by- Anuj Vishwakarma
Introduction-
Domestic Violence is defined under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 as physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, and economic abuse against a woman by her partner or family members residing in a joint family and also includes unlawful dowry demands. Domestic violence is an acute health concern of women for the world. However, even though the crime is attached mainly to the women due to the density of it being committed against women more frequently than men, men over the period of time has also been the victim of domestic violence. India shares a massive share out of the number of domestic violence cases globally every year. As per 2015-16 data from the National Family Health Survey, 31.1% of married women between the age of 15-49 years were the victims of domestic violence. National Crime Record Bureau's data suggests that domestic violence leads the tally of crimes committed against women every year in India.
Domestic violence during the lockdown in India-
The Prime Minister of India announced a nationwide lockdown on March 22, 2020, to contain the spread of COVID-19. India declared COVID-19 a “notified disaster” under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. Extended lockdown which lasted for more than 6 months inconsistently since March 2020 and other social distancing measures imposed to stop the spread of the pandemic made women more vulnerable to domestic violence. The lockdown slogan “Stay Home. Stay Safe” was an encouraging one for most people. However, it became a time of enforced cruel confinement with their tormentors for many others, especially women.
As per data from the National Commission for Women, domestic violence cases against women almost doubled. The number of complaints of domestic violence rose to 5,297 in 2020 from 2,960 in 2019. Similarly, data from across the country indicates that domestic violence cases have increased significantly over the past 2 years.
Probable reasons for the surge-
Existing literature and data on domestic violence during the lockdown are scarce. Moreover, the lockdown situation is different and complex from other types of disasters. Almost all the states have been affected by the presence of coronavirus at a single time. The question lies as to what factors are associated with an increase in domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic?
In the report Grappling with the Shadow on domestic violence prepared by an NGO of Mumbai, an NGO named Breakthrough was quoted saying “an organisation working to create a cultural shift and make discrimination and violence against girls and women unacceptable”, is quoted in the report as saying: “One thing which aggravated the violence was the idea of social distancing. It made people believe that they cannot intervene in other people’s matters. You have to stay away from people and there is no way you can reach out. That isolation made things even worse.” The NGO also stressed the fact that many poor families in India also had to stay in a single-room home. As per Felson and Cohen's RAT theory on domestic violence, offenders most often want to do the least amount of effort to commit criminal activities such as traveling less distance to search and find a target and picking out a target who is evident and proximate. This explains the surge in domestic violence cases during COVID-19, as home became the very space where the capable offenders meet the suitable targets in the absence of a capable guardian. A motivated offender now has to put in the least amount of effort to find its target. Researchers have found a clear link between financial stress and domestic violence. The rates of domestic violence have risen with an increase in financial stress. On March 24, 2020, India entered into the 1st phase of lockdown together with the lockout of all public transport systems, factories, offices, restaurants, and educational institutions. What we anticipated would last for only 21 days but continued for months long and destroyed the Indian economy to the core. Since the last 2 years, there has been a job loss of approximately 50 million people in the unorganized sector. Stringent lockdown rules restricted most of the economic activities, spawning millions to lose their source of income. By June 2020, more or less 85% of the Indian households had seen a decrease in their income. Such economic distress created anxiety and feelings of helplessness among people in India. The abusers projected their frustration by inflicting a higher level of abuse on women.
The numbers of domestic violence complaints were on a 10 year high. India generally has an underreporting problem when it comes to domestic violence, where almost 90% of the victims seek aid from their friends and immediate family members. However, given the lockdown, the victims faced a shortage of social support, where otherwise they could have sought shelter and help. Generally, victims could run off and find shelter elsewhere, which isn’t possible during the lockdown. Lack of social support is one of the major factors that stimulated domestic violence. This situation is not something exclusive to India; many women across the globe are facing similar problems of being locked up with their abusers.
Conclusion-
In India, the pandemic has called for attention to the significance of addressing violence against women as a public health priority. Yet, this surge in domestic violence is not a unique impact of the covid-pandemic. Historically, as social infrastructures break down during disasters, men are at their homes almost all the time, women suffer the increased burden of domestic violence. For example, Sierra Leone saw a surge of 19 percent in gender-based violence during the Ebola outbreak in Africa in 2014-2016. These reports of gender-based violence are given low priority, are unrecognized, and are under-funded; it is a pattern that is not singular to one country or region. In Addition to the coronavirus pandemic, another brutal pandemic that arose for women is domestic violence. Vaccines are being used to be safe from the covid. In the same way, women can be saved from domestic violence by changing the patriarchal mindset of men in society. Substantial steps need to be taken to stop the men from treating women like objects to express their anger, frustration, and sometimes even fun.
References-
https://www.alliance.edu.in/ijls/ijls-2021/assets/documents/COVID19-Lockdown.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7945968/
https://www.epw.in/journal/2021/17/review-womens-studies/ongoing-pandemic.html