GLOBAL UPSURGE IN DOMICILIARY ASSAULT DURING COVID- 19 CRISIS:

When The Stressful Pocket Becomes Directly Proportional to The Stressful Mind.

Author- Anisha Banerjee

Some scars take time to heal,

Some of them are eternally veiled,

Some days are insufferable and strife,

But the show must go on,

Behind the facade of life!

Even if they comprehensively extricate themselves from the lethal Covid- 19 by following the lockdown and staying indoors, will they be able to fortify themselves from the disgusting and repulsive act of “Domestic Violence”.

While the alarming rise of this “Severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus or popularly known as the Covid- 19 “ is holding us down in the deep water worldwide, meanwhile the women who are naturally assumed to be the care taker of a family are actually trapped where they should be the safest: in their homes. Usually people cannot really empathize with the victim but can certainly sympathize in most of the events. The deliberate thought process of majority of the people who by chance interact with the victim tends to be somewhat passive and remote. This can be a considerable reason why this violence keeps on adding up on a daily basis because the victim chooses not to be just pitted upon and prefers to be tight lipped.

So to get a more accurate overview of the term domestic violence we need to dig into its intricacies. Basically the term domestic violence is used in many countries to refer to intimate partner violence when the abuser is one of the members of a household but it also encompasses child or elder abuse. It broadly includes all acts of physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence. It causes physical harm temporarily but the mental and emotional trauma prolongs for an indefinite period of time.

The lockdown due to the pandemic is substantially leading to a negative income shock for everyone and especially in the unorganised sector where the women when interviewed narrates the ordeal of her sufferings from domestic violence coupled with the husband’s alcoholism. This can be a considerable reason for government to temporarily ban the buying and selling of intoxicating substances.

Recently, the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres was prompted by the escalation in domestic violence worldwide and made an agitated appeal this week. He addressed globally saying tranquillity and calmness is not just the absence of terrorism and homicide. Many women under lockdown for COVID-19 face abuse and violence where they should be the safest i.e. in their homes. He made due and earnest appeal and pleaded for peace in homes around the world and also urged the government to put women safety first as they respond to the pandemic.

As we come across more countries to report infection and lockdown, more domestic violence help lines and shelters all around the globe are reporting calls for help. Women and children who live and strive with domestic violence have no escape from their abusers even in this dreadful pandemic situation where all of us are required to stay in quarantine. All over the world from, Brazil to Germany, Italy to China activists and survivors say they are already seeing an alarming rise in the abuse.

As we taper down to India we are no less to contribute in this malicious conduct which is rising globally. According to 2018 Crime in India Report, published by the National Crime Report Bureau, a woman is subjected to domestic violence every 4.4 minutes. The slightest thought of the prevailing situation due to the lockdown puts me on tenterhooks. According to the recent report by Delhi Police approximately 2500 women in Delhi called emergency helpline numbers, out of which 1612 pertained to domestic violence.

The literature on domestic violence suggests that when men and/or women get employed, domestic violence tends to fall as interaction between couples reduced. But many empirical researches show that women, whose socio-economic status is equal to or higher than that of their husbands, face higher or lower domestic violence than whose socio-economic status is lower than that of their husbands. Thus, lockdown prevailing due to this pandemic may act as a catalyst, thereby making the husband more volatile owing to the present socio-economic status. The stressful pocket becomes directly proportional to the mental stress consequently affecting the cohabiting partners. As mentioned in (A book by Mirra Komarovsky).

It’s not always easy to be a WOMAN and be the STRONGEST at the same time. People need to get well versed with the point that women need to be treated like a fellow human being cause one time they (women) are given the respect of a holy deity making her sit on the pedestal and the other times like a worm in the gutter, it’s quite harsh because the truth always is, but at the same time legit. With this I would like to cite-

From every wound there is a scar,

And every scar tells a story,

A story that says- I survived.

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