The whole world is suffering and is busy fighting the Covid-19 crisis. Everyone is facing huge repercussions due to it, be it political, social, professional, or economical. The governments are trying their best to take as many precautions as it can and for the same many countries have announced nationwide lockdown including India to prevent the spread of the virus. Though these precautions of government are understandable and essential for our benefit, but in this, we have somewhere overlooked one section of our society, who is at the same time suffering from another pandemic, namely Domestic Violence. Due to this woman are the most hardly hit community right now.
On 6 April 2020, the United Nations Secretary called for a “ceasefire” to address the “horrifying global surge in domestic violence.” Since the pandemic, the cases of violence against women are exponentially rising at the global level. UN reported that Lebanon and Malaysia, received a double amount of helpline calls compared to the same month previous year; in China it tripled, whereas, in Australia, there was the highest magnitude of google searches for domestic violence help in the past five years. Similarly, the imposition of lockdown in India led to the same unfortunate consequences. Between March 25 and May 31, 1,477 complaints of domestic violence were made by women. This 68-day period recorded more complaints than those received between March and May in the previous 10 years. This is only the tip of the iceberg as the number of domestic violence cases is much more since many cases go unreported.
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Causes of the surge in cases
It is not possible to point out one reason for the surge in cases as several factors play its role in it. According to Sociologist Marianne Hester, “domestic violence goes up whenever families spend more time together, such as the Christmas and summer vacations.” Thus, amidst the lockdown instances of domestic violence cases has increased.
One of the significant aspects for the increase in cases is that India has always followed a patriarchal system where women are mostly subdued by men. This gender and role discrimination has placed all the burden of domestic work on women. Domestic Work is generally referred in India as “women’s work”. Male members do not help female members of the family as they consider it derogatory. Due to the lockdown, all the members of the family are at home thus, leading to an increase in workload for her. She has to fulfil all the demands and wishes of the members right from cooking special dishes, washing clothes, utensils, and looking after other household chores. Moreover, the absence of housekeeping staff has forced her to manage everything single-handedly and, in these circumstances, if she fails to do something or makes an error, she is exposed to violence.
As mentioned above the data provided of domestic violence is partial as numerous cases go unreported. This is due to the fact that many women do not come forward to seek help and suffer in silence. They are clouded by orthodox thinking or sometimes blackmailed by their family members that if they complain about it then the honour of the family will get maligned. Women also fear that if she lodges a complaint and her husband is arrested then she may face even worse when he is released or will suffer more at the hands of her in-laws. Besides this, being trapped with the perpetrator her mobility is restricted and her privacy is also lost. Retrieving help from outside becomes impossible for her. Many women do not even have mobile phones through which they can contact someone and now they have lost access to any support available outside be it police, NGOs, or any other person. They are left in misery being caged with the abusers.
According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, the national lockdown did not just throw 72 million people out of the labour force but it also drove another 85 million to some kind of desperation to look for jobs in the midst of a national lockdown when none were available. This scenario suggests the vulnerability of people and their helplessness due to loss of livelihood. The frustration of loss of income and to manage the expenditures of family, especially for males makes them to exert violence on their partners. It is worst if the female spouse is unemployed and the male is employed. Employment and income aid females against violence as their income supports the family to be financially better, but unemployment makes them vulnerable to violence at the hands of spouses. Unemployment also means she is completely dependent on her spouse and in some cases because of lack of her parental support she is unable to retaliate and raise her voice against the perpetrator. And in India large chunk of women is economically dependent on her spouse.
Another important aspect is that after the 40 days of lockdown, the State had opened the liquor shops as a first step towards easing the restrictions. The government had also levied a special corona tax of 70 percent in some places amid concerns of lost revenue. This in turn magnified already deteriorated conditions as the male counterparts rushed towards the liquor shops and increased their alcohol consumption, thereby increasing domestic violence independently. This not only added to the financial burden but also towards an increase in abuse against women. So many cases were reported where a husband in an intoxicated state was physically assaulting his wife and children. In doing so, the state somewhere prioritized earning revenue rather than safeguarding the women and children.
According to UNICEF 20 million babies will be born in India till the end of this year. India also noted a surge of porn usage and sale of condoms hence indirectly indicating the chances of sexual rights violation. Women might be exposed to domestic violence in the form of sexual harassment or marital rape too. And the ill fate of the Indian women is that in India, marital rape is not even considered as a crime so, the women are subjected to that too. Hence, the perpetrators are taking undue advantage of these isolation measures being sure that there is no one to intervene and defend the women.
Steps taken by the Government
No major steps are taken by the government to prevent and protect women from domestic violence. For e.g. Delhi Commission for Women has set up a helpline number (181) to combat violence and trauma during the pandemic that one may reach out. In UP, the state government has initiated a special helpline for victims of domestic abuse under the title `Suppress Corona, not your voice’. But as mentioned above some women don’t even have access to communicate or seek help then in such a situation she is left without any solution.
In Tamil Nadu, protection officers have been appointed under the Domestic Violence Act, 2005, and are given permission to move during the lockdown and some women are being rescued. The chairperson of NCW claimed that ASHA and Anganwadi and other frontline health workers are counselling against domestic violence and women can report these workers in case they are facing abuse.
No doubt government and judiciary are trying their best even in these tough times to protect and safeguard the victims however, the measures taken are not sufficient. The government should conduct campaigns to make citizens aware of domestic violence. The government should ask citizens to be sensitized towards the increased risks of domestic violence and encourage them to intervene if they suspect abuse, using tactics such as the banging on the door or ringing the bell. In countries like France and Spain codewords such as ‘mask 19’ are used to indicate that they are being abused.
Family is considered as a place where one secures love, solace, safety, and security but for some women, it has become the place of insecurity and violence. She is being abused and tortured by her very own family and instead of receiving love and respect, she is forced to bear humiliation and violence without uttering a single word. Thus, to establish a safe and secure society with gender just attitude for the women, lockdown should be imposed on the orthodox thinking of the people. For creating a better and safe environment for women, governments should implement stringent laws and take all precautionary measures. They should also set up new mechanisms to safeguard women as much as possible.
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