India’s national watchdog for women has revealed that the number of domestic violence cases have gone up during the lockdown period.
According to the data accessed by Sputnik, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has recorded as many as 69 cases of domestic violence since 23 March.
“Every day the number of domestic violence cases is increasing. Not just me even my staff is receiving complaints regarding the same. In many cases, women are not even able to step out due to the lockdown,” said Rekha Sharma, Chairperson of National Commission for Women.
Domestic Violence cases rising rapidly during Lockdown National Commission of #Women registers 69 complaint since lockdown.#COVID19Pandemic #lockdown pic.twitter.com/H5mdUac8ld
— Rishikesh Kumar (@rishhikesh) April 2, 2020
NCW has also registered a total of 257 cases of crimes against women, which include rapes, rape attempts and the harassment of married women during the lockdown period; it has taken action on 237 complaints.
“We will try to reach out and help all the women going through violence during the lockdown,” Rekha Sharma added.
“People who have been a part of an abusive relationship are worse hit. The more time they are spending with their abuser, more are the chances of getting abused. Men are getting frustrated sitting inside the house and not being able to go out and live a normal life. So, here power dynamics come into play and the chances of women being subjected to such abuse increases,” Sana Khullar, a neuropsychologist, told Sputnik.
She further revealed that some of the abusers could be alcoholic or are experiencing financial trouble or pressure at work, and have taken out their frustration on their wives.
“They (abusers) just want to establish power and superiority, which is one of the main causes of abuse. Also putting two people in a confined area might prove disastrous, if it is not very normal in their relationship. There are different forms of abuse like emotional, physical and verbal. Also, most men in our society have been brought up seeing women (their mother or sisters) being submissive and this is what they want from their wives as well,” Khullar added.the
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who announced the three-week-long lockdown, had said, “If we want to restrict the spread of Coronavirus, we will have to break its chain of infection.”
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in India on 30 January, 50 people have lost their lives to infection, while there were 1,965 positive cases in the country, according to data released by the federal Health and Family Welfare Ministry.
