Covid-19 Lockdown has triggered a rise in violence against women in India.
India is a country where women are given the status of a goddess. However the number of problems they have to face just shown the opposite of the concept. People here, on one hand, worship the ideal but on the other hand, they abuse endlessly the living goddess and consider them inferior. This three-month-long lock-down infection may keep women safe from Coronavirus infection but has pushed a lot of them towards something equally grievous-domestic violence.
As per the numbers or data provided by the National Commission for Women( NCW) in mid-April, the cases of domestic violence had doubled during lockdown compared to pre-lockdown days. In 25 days between March 23 and April 16, the commission received 239 complaints mainly through Emails and Whats app numbers. This is almost double the number of complaints(123) received during the previous 25 days from February 27 to March 22.
A question arises!!!! Why women get harassed????
Then various of the answers come up like lack of opportunities for women even if they have decided to leave that abusive house but to prove this fact wrong-: A 32 years old woman took her own life on 25th June in Hyderabad. Her husband used to assault her, and it’s not the first time she was continuously beaten up by her in law’s along with her husband according to her father just because she was not able to get pregnant. she was a software engineer. She can easily leave that house to earn money live a normal life but why did she take such an extreme step??????
Women are never ever safe in their workplace, how disheartening is this? A man started beating his female colleague because she asked him to wear a face mask as per the COVID-19 terms. That man is a senior employee of the state tourism department of Andhra Pradesh. After this incident, he has been arrested and sent to jail. Questioning why in this 21st-century man still thinks women inferiority.
An 18 years old girl gang-raped by seven people for five hours in Madhya Pradesh on April 29. 3 minors were involved in that rape. It’s not that the girl was alone or something else, she was going back to her home with her brother on a bike while those monsters attacked them.
In just a month of April Haryana recorded 66 rapes, 142 cases of molestation, 117 cases of dowry abuse and deaths, and 62 cases of kidnapping. In the same period, the state of Punjab recorded the 50% of the domestic violence complaint has reached a 10 year high in this lockdown period and this calculation is nothing because 77% of women don’t talk to anyone about domestic violence cases. Don’t we all know Why??
- Fear of more harassment by the husband and in-laws
- Lack of support from their own family member
- Social stigma
- Uncertain future
- Lack of opportunities for them to financially independent
Also Read: Know about symptoms of COVID-19 and steps to improve immunity power
And things get worse for them even they have children. It becomes very difficult for them even to think about leaving that abusive house. There is a reason why divorce is still considered as a taboo in India. and to make matter worse in this lockdown there has been a huge increase in unemployment, sources of income have dried up, Millions of people have been pushed into poverty. they are hungry and suffering reasons of anger, frustration, depression, entity levels up in between the domestic life. And men burst out this anger upon the most vulnerable members of the family women.
Women face it all in all forms, physical, mental, and sexually but now a day’s in this digital world women are also facing cyberbullying.
If you are a victim of domestic violence then you should consider these steps :
- At first, tell a friend or a close relative about it. please don’t afraid. There are a lot of NGOs who are working on this matter for the government.
- Even the National Commission of Women has been provided a lot of helpline numbers. please call them. They will guide you right. And don’t think it’s your fault. your silence is helping abuses to do more such things. If NGO’s counseling don’t help you then don’t hesitate to report it to Police.
- It’s not normal, the fact that we have made this normal this is one of the main reasons that woman don’t talk about domestic violence. So please reach out to anyone possible or you think might help you.
Don’t think all men are the same or abuse you. there are also people who will help you out only you need to speak up about this in front of someone close to you and who claims himself as a good man or a person if they came across, this kind of incident this is the time came out and help them any way possible.
Those monsters need to know that they can’t go on doing this forever and that they will be punished. This culture of violence needs to end. If we are happy about a new normal world after the post Coronavirus. then we really need to rethink how we treat and look at all the gender.
Source – National Commission of Women( NCW)
