Fighting Coronavirus or Violence?
- realshepower
- Apr 26, 2020
- 4 min read
While the entire planet is battling the dreaded Covid-19 virus with serious implications on nations in terms of health, economy and social health, there seems to be another quite-serious issue to be dealt with by the authorities. With the lockdown in place, people are forced to stay indoor as much as possible, venturing out only for a limited amount of time just for the essentials.
Due to the pandemic, many businesses have shut down, the economy of the nation has taken a bad hit along with a spectre of looming indecisiveness as to when the situation would be favourable again. With unemployment, alcohol consumption and low-income being the top three stated reasons to be violent, there seems to exist a certain mentality of false superiority in men as well driving them to believe that women are born to subservient and follow a path as dictated by the menfolk or the male dominated society. It is the lingering feeling of age old times when men were hunters and females stayed back with the herd and children to be the nurturers. In the current situation, where men are mostly at home with not much to do and no social interaction between friends is either possible, cases of domestic violence on women and children have been on a rise this year.
Situation at hand
For many, domestic violence may be perceived at episodes of physical violence towards women or harassment of some sort by the husband or the partner at home, it is all but true only in parts. Domestic violence is definitely a form of aggravated behavior which occurs in a domestic setting but can be mental, emotional, reproductive, sexual or even economic apart from the usual physical in nature. This, may or may not involve non-cohabiting family members.
Often in situations such as these, women lodge a complaint with the police or the elders in the family in return of some respite from the abusive partner. However in the current scenario, where we see a lockdown for as long as weeks together, there is no way other than to cohabit the same space as the abusive partner or other family members. With no access to the outside world, there is neither support nor report of much consequence. This has made women live with the abuse and the perpetrator all the time, in close proximity.
Abuse in the time of Covid-19
This means that a social unit such as a family, nuclear or not is staying indoor with no escape route other than the confines of the home. Many parts of the world such as the UK and India, authorities have seen a very marked spike in the number of domestic violence cases. Between the 23rd of March and 14th of April 17, 2020, authorities in UK have registered an approximate of 16 cases of deaths due to domestic violence against both women and children. This is far more than the national average around that time which is said to close to 5 deaths.
In fact, even in India, the helplines seems to have seen a visible spike in the cases of domestic violence. Cohabiting with the abuse and the abusive partner often results in additional stress and novel challenges for the victim. It gives them little chance to think in a rational manner. Often such victims are also found to be victims of gas lighting which makes them feel responsible for all the abuse and erratic behavior of the partner. Often it is found that our social conditioning and the stigma of being a single parent or a divorcee is such that it never occurs to them that they deserve better. Living with abuse has been proven to be detrimental to the health and well-being of both the woman and the children, the effect of which could be long-term on their psyche.
While it is common to believe that women are the most usual victims of domestic violence, the fact is that it is just a slightly lesser percentage of men being victims of domestic violence too. However, the cases or chances of women being the perpetrator of physical injury is less than that of males. It is thus necessary for the law enforcement authorities to believe and try to find out the truth as well as there are at time exaggerated stories too. With more helplines, legal assistance, counsellors and shelters for people especially women and children, they are less likely to feel more vulnerable and helpless. Witnessing the current trend of cases being on the rise, it can be said that we will be in this situation for some more time as the wiping out of the pandemic will take place in phases. Till then we cannot hold the safety and security of women, children or even the elders at stake.
About the Author
Priyanka Kanjilal is a computer graduate and a content developer, she has been into content delivery for over 10years with focus on academic and learning solutions based content. Being a writer, she is not genre specific and dabbles in both technical and non-technical content with ease.
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