Increase In Domestic Violence Cases During Lockdown

Meghna Deshmukh

5 years ago

Note: If you are looking for help, Youth Ki Awaaz has curated a repository of useful helplines and information. You can access it here.

Due to the increasing scale of the COVID-19 pandemic, the safest place for all of us is supposed to be our house. However, what if that’s not the case?

According to many news reports, the National Commission for Women has seen an increase in complaints since the lockdown started earlier last week. They’ve received more than 250 complaints, out of which, 69 have to do with domestic violence.

According to the Committee’s chairperson, Rekha Sharma, “Since March 24, a total of 257 complaints related to various offences against women were received, out of which 69 were of domestic violence“. If the data was to be looked at state-wise, UP had the highest number complaints with 90, followed by Delhi with 37.

The report also states that 30 domestic violence complaints were recorded early in March and another 58 complaints were recorded between March 23 and 30. Meanwhile, the report said that complaints about other crimes, like dowry and sexual harassment, saw a decrease during the said time.

Not only in India but even around the world, there as been an increase in domestic violence reports ever since lockdowns have been implemented in various countries. According to The Guardian, The National Domestic Hotline in the US received more than 900 calls between March 10 and 24 who reported violence in quarantine.

Unfortunately, the complaints of domestic violence have been increasing day by day both in India and overseas.

While our own house seems to be the only safe haven nowadays it’s sad to think that this is not the case for all.