Coronavirus COVID-19 induced lockdown sees spike in cases of domestic abuse worldwide

Mangalore Today News Network

Delhi, Apr 04, 2020: As India grapples with the deadly coronavirus pandemic and the nation wide lockdown to curb the spread of the disease, reports suggest an increase in the number of domestic abuse cases. The analysis was done by Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary in DNA, the world’s most-watched news show.

Amidst the coronavirus imposed lockdown, complains of violence against women has almost doubled. The National Commission for Women (NCW) received 111 complaints in the first week of March and as many as 257 in the last week of March. There were 30 complaints of domestic violence in the first week of March, 69 complaints after the lockdown, Zee reported.

 

The police are also unable to pay full attention to the complaints with the impostion of lockdown. While are there a still thousands of women who will not complain or have no one to listen to them.

Even as the picture is grim in India, it is not just about here, this is the state of the world.

In France, since the lockdown on March 17, cases of domestic violence have increased by 32 percent in one week. These cases grew by 36 percent in the capital Paris.

While in Spain, since the lockdown on March 14, there have been calls to the government helpline number by victims of domestic violence. In the first two weeks of the lockdown, 12 percent more calls were recorded. The online consultations provided via the helpline’s website also saw a spike of 270 per cent.

Activists in Italy are saying that though calls to emergency helpline numbers have come down, but they are getting nervous and restless text messages and emails from the victims. This is because women are afraid to call from home.

Cases of domestic violence during lockdown in Hubei province of China, which was the hub of the coronavirus in 2019, increased from 47 to 162 over the previous year.

In the US, the National Domestic Violence Hotline receives about 2000 calls a day. People in about 950 calls are referring to coronavirus in their complaint of domestic violence. The number of cases have increased by 21% in Seattle, US.