All doors shut: When home is not the safest place...

Amid rise in domestic violence, experts say women now have fewer avenues to seek help

Published: 07th April 2020 06:41 AM 

By Sushmitha Ramakrishnan

Express News Service

CHENNAI: In a bid to ensure social distancing, families have barely left their houses since the lockdown was imposed. However, being locked indoors with an abusive partner has resulted in an increase in cases of domestic violence, say experts.

A week ago, the International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care (PCVC) received a call from a woman who said her husband had threatened to kick her out of the house, because she coughed. “Her husband told her she will kill rest of the family by being the first one to fall sick,” said Swetha Shankar, Director of Client Services at PCVC.

Statistics gathered by National Commission for Women showed that at least 58 women have complained about domestic violence in the last week of March. National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences also received a few hundred calls, over the last couple of days alone. Swetha said a victim who reached out to the police was asked to call back after the curfew ended. For a victim, to stay with her abuser after reporting the violence, puts her life at threat, she added.

Meanwhile, the State’s helpline number for women (181) received fewer calls about domestic abuse, said one of the attenders. “We used to receive 15-20 calls a day before the lockdown. Now, it has come down,” she said. PCVC too has been getting only a third of the calls, compared to a month ago, said Prasanna Gettu, Co- founder of the centre. Experts opined that there were at least two reasons for this — either the victim does not have an access to help, or the violence had been normalised.

“Studies show women in the State have accepted violence against them,” said Swarna Rajagopalan, founder of Prajnya, an organisation working on gender issues. “During the lockdown, women are likely to face two to three times more violence. And nobody would come in to help,” said Vasundharaa S Nair, Senior Research Fellow at NIMHANS.

She added that the increase in violence is directly linked to the victim’s vulnerability. The lockdown also increases the risk of incest-abuse and abuse of live-in domestic help, say experts. It cannot be the victim’s responsibility alone to find help out of an abuse, said Swarna, adding that everyone within the family and neighbourhood should be sensitised enough to intervene.