Domestic Violence Amidst Lockdown in India

Abhinesh Soni, Symbiosis Law School Pune & Soumya Goswami, DES Shri Navalmal Firodia Law College, Pune

ABSTRACT

Covid-19 has severely impacted the world and had forced different countries affected by it to bitterly undergo either complete or partial lockdown in order to curb the threat. However, with the commencement of lockdown, particularly in India, serious challenges and unprecedented situations were faced across the length and breadth of the country. The country’s people had faced gross infringement of basic human rights to food, clothing and travel. Nonetheless, with more and more people being forced to comply with the ‘stay at home’ restrictions, there has been an increase in gender based violence testified by the World Health Organization. The efforts of various NGOs and other reports reflect the rise of domestic violence against women in India and across the world amidst the lockdown. Evident from the rise of domestic violence cases, home which is ideally considered a safe place and only remedy against covid-19, had turned out to be perilous for women. Also notable from the National Commission for Women (NCW) Chairperson, Rekha Sharma’s remarks, that the high number can be attributed to the lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus outbreak which had locked the abuser and the victim together. Nonetheless, the cases of domestic violence shall be estimated to be more than the reported number as the cases were reported mainly via e- mails and phones. Hence, a derivation can be drawn that only a section of women who had access to technology were mostly able to report the aforementioned cases during the lockdown. This essay scrutinises domestic violence faced by women in India amidst lockdown and the lack of formal steps taken by the state in acknowledging and addressing the seriousness of the distress and its implications. This essay further institutes the need of maintaining social distance with misogynist ideas and practices existing in the society, in addition to physical distancing.