#EPWConversations: Today, @RStweet18 will be talking about the recent spike in domestic violence because of #lockdowns following the #COVID19 pandemic from the @epw_in handle!We invite you to join the conversation and ask questions.
Stay Home, Stay (un)Safe seems to be what the spike in domestic violence during the pandemic suggests. The first reporting on 3 April said that between 23 March and 1 April, the number of complaints that the National Commission for Women (NCW) received was 257. | @RStweet18
Among these figures, 69 cases of domestic violence (DV) had increased from 30 cases between 2-8 March—a two-fold increase. | @RStweet18
Further figures suggest that between the beginning of March and 5 April, the NCW received 310 grievances of domestic violence and 885 complaints for other forms of violence against women. | @RStweet18 http://164.100.58.238/frmComp_Stat_Overview.aspx
Many of these are domestic in nature— such as bigamy, polygamy, dowry deaths, and harassment for dowry. | @RStweet18 idronline.org/the-link-betwe…
On 20 April, the Delhi High Court, through a two judge bench directed the Centre and the Delhi government to deliberate on measures to curb and protect women facing domestic violence ... | @RStweet18
… as well as to effectively implement the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA). | @RStweet18
economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-…
economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-…
NCW has announced a Whatsapp number, in addition to online complaint links and emails which are already operational. | @RStweet18 economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-…
While the NCW figures are revealing, it is also necessary to acknowledge that specific categories of women are facing different kinds of violence in relation to the domestic sphere, some of which may not even be recorded as domestic violence in non-pandemic times. | @RStweet18
Women living with disabilities, muslim women, LGBT+ individuals, women living with HIV-AIDS, or sex workers, have already been drastically impacted in terms of access to basic amenities and health care. | @RStweet18 theweek.in/news/india/202…
According to a report from the International Disability Alliance collected from the Odisha, Gujarat & Telangana Women with Disabilities Network, there's been an increase in violence from partners & personal attendants as stress levels within the household increases. | @RStweet18
There is no community watch and women with disabilities choose to keep quiet as they fear abandonment by family. | @RStweet18 internationaldisabilityalliance.org/sites/default/…
Disaggregated data on domestic violence against women with disabilities is not provided by either NCW or National Crime Records Bureau. | @RStweet18
Sex workers in Mumbai, Kolkata and Madhya Pradesh have received no assistance from the government, and barely have any money to get by, feed their families and buy medicines. | @RStweet18 indiaspend.com/sex-workers-hi…
Sex workers, living in cramped brothels, are also particularly susceptible to COVID-19. | @RStweet18
When a brothel is the ‘home,’ it lacks a social support network. With regards to this, the NCW Chairperson has suggested relocation if necessary, to maintain social distancing. However, this plight will not even count as DV. | @RStweet18
COVID-19 seems particularly susceptible to soap and water. Not everyone, though, has equal access to water. | @RStweet18
In the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, the burden of fetching and managing water falls on women, more so women from Dalit communities, since upper caste households may have their own wells. | @RStweet18 firstpost.com/long-reads/cov…
Crowded homes, substance abuse, limited access to services and reduced peer support have exacerbated these conditions. | @RStweet18
On 5 April, the UN Secretary-General called for a global ceasefire and an end to all violence everywhere so that attention and resources could be focused on stopping the pandemic (UN Policy Brief: The Impact of COVID-19 on Women). | @RStweet18
In any situation of crisis, economic uncertainty, disaster, historically, there has been a rise in domestic violence as well as gendered long lasting impact on women. | @RStweet18
UNICEF’s technical note on COVID-19 and Harmful Practices (April 2020) refers back to the Ebola crisis wherein adolescent girls were disproportionately affected by these emergencies. | @RStweet18
Efforts to stop the Ebola epidemics led to school closures and a loss of education; a decrease in access to reproductive health information and services; a loss of livelihoods and a contraction of social support networks. | @RStweet18
These undermined strategies to end Female Genital Mutilation and child marriage, and threatened previous attained progress. | @RStweet18
Even during the Bhopal gas disaster, women were affected more than men. While children were born with congenital defects, they too suffered health complications, such as early menopause. | @RStweet18
Many who had lived in confinement, due to the purdah system of female seclusion, found themselves having to find paid work due to the death or incapacitation of their menfolk. | @RStweet18 independent.co.uk/news/world/asi…
According to the International Federation of Red Cross study, early, and sometimes forced, marriages are common in disaster settings. | @RStweet18
For instance, forced marriages to “tsunami widowers” were reportedly commonplace in Sri Lanka after the 2004 South Asian tsunami, and even occurred within the same family. | @RStweet18
Many adolescent girls facing economic hard-ships in drought-affected areas of Kenya had to fall back on transactional sex or entered child/early marriages. | @RStweet18
Research in Somaliland and Niger found that, after disasters, families considered that child/early marriage protected their daughters (Unseen, Unheard: GBV in disaster A Global study, 2015). | @RStweet18
Similarly, that home is not a safe place has been established through years of domestic violence- related research in India. | @RStweet18 epw.in/engage/article…
“Caged,” “trapped,” “confined,” “control” have been synonymously used with the home, for women, for people with disabilities, or for people exercising choices— like that of one’s intimate companion. | @RStweet18
Women in different social and interpersonal contexts could be stuck with abusive husbands, partners, fathers for long durations during the lockdown. That sustained economic hardships lead to domestic violence has been long proven. | @RStweet18
In a pandemic situation, reporting of domestic violence cases need to be made part of essential services. | @RStweet18
While there is a whatsapp number that the NCW has initiated, for most women, getting access to a phone and calling for help or reporting violence might be a challenge in itself. | @RStweet18 | thewire.in/women/covid-19….
Can there be other ways of expressing that one is experiencing domestic violence? At the medical store, grocery store (UN Policy, as followed in Spain and France) or to the neighbour—if facing difficulty in going to the police station. | @RStweet18 edition.cnn.com/2020/04/02/eur…
Moreover, feminist movements have emphasised the importance of violence-free homes, and the PWDVA is a legislation towards that. | @RStweet18
Is this a good time to be reimagining the home itself, to not look at it only along parental and marital lines? What about other community forms of living? | @RStweet18
Working women's hostels, flat-sharing by adult women in cities due to higher education or jobs, are present. But this is only until the woman marries or is economically solvent enough to find a home of her own. | @RStweet18
What is the importance of building affordable civic/community, abuse-free safe housing for women? | | @RStweet18
According to the UN Policy Brief, designating domestic violence shelters as essential services and increasing resources towards them, has been proposed. | @RStweet18
Counselling services through phones and helplines have also increased. | @RStweet18
In the absence of a national policy to deal with increase in domestic violence, women’s rights organisations, transgender and sexuality rights organisations are stretching themselves to act as the main support service. | @RStweet18 | caravanmagazine.in/gender/lockdow…
The UP Police has also started a campaign at the end of March, labelled, “Suppress Corona, not your Voice.” Similarly, Kerala SCW started with tele-counselling services and from 11 April, the Department of Justice has initiated a 24 hour whatsapp number. | @RStweet18
Thank you for joining us! You can go through our reading list on the many dimensions of domestic violence here: epw.in/engage/article…
