The United Nations commissioned November 25 as International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women. Ever since the covid-19 pandemic confined people to their homes, there has been an increase in the violence against the fearer gender which to a certain degree has been reflected in the complaints received by the National Commission for Women. While cogent data has been missing, one can say, looking in the society and news which we come across, the incidences have been far higher.
The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 which came into effect in October 2006 defines domestic violence as any act, omission or commission that causes injury to a woman’s physical or mental health and includes specific forms of violence such as physical, sexual, verbal, emotional and economic abuse. The Act seeks to provide relief to women in the form of protection order, residence order, monetary relief, custody order and compensation orders. Breach of any protection order is a criminal offence. Authorities needed to act fast. While data is lacking regarding it, there are not means for registering the complaints at the first place either.
It is also not just confined to domestic violence but there have been increased incidents of rape, harassment and other such undesirable acts against women.
It is not the case that anticipation or forewarning against the rise were no there. Most rapes are perpetrated by people known to the victim but there are hardly befitting punishments. Most of the rapes are not reported for the reasons well known and also specifically documented. One does not know exactly how many women were raped or trafficked? One does not know how many were married forcibly and under-aged in desperation to see them safe and fed. One can with a degree of certainty say that violence is the ominous, omnipresent, obvious reality in the lives the fairer gender. The sexual and gender-based violence was the most predictable consequence of the lockdown and as a society, we have collectively failed to prove apprehensions wrong. Systematic creation of a support infrastructure like easy access helplines, secure shelter services with enabling cultures and sensitisation of people against violence has not been done in the manner as it ought to have been.
