The United Nations has warned against a “shadow pandemic” — a spike in physical and sexual violence against women and girls, as families, facing the pressures of job losses, hunger and illness, turn on the vulnerable amid them.
Billions of people across the world are under lockdowns in the attempt to flatten the spiking curve of novel coronavirus infections. But as the unfolding crisis has also revealed, for millions of women, staying home does not equal to staying safe. Home is not a sanctuary but a battlefront, where many women have little defence against violence from intimate partners and family members. The United Nations has warned against a “shadow pandemic” — a spike in physical and sexual violence against women and girls, as families, facing the pressures of job losses, hunger and illness, turn on the vulnerable amid them. In France, Argentina, Singapore, the US and the UK, distress calls to helplines are up, as are reports of domestic violence.
In India, the National Commission for Women has flagged a rise in complaints of domestic abuse and violence, with several women emailing the commission for protection against abusive husbands and in-laws — the lockdown means that they are effectively shut in with their abusers. Many helplines are also reporting a dip in distress calls — increased surveillance from family members might be stopping women from reaching out for help. The lockdown has sharpened the edge of inequality for other minorities and marginalised, from queer people locked in with hostile families to children who face abuse at the hands of their parents.
At the same time, in a sense, the lockdown is also a familiar reality for far too many women in India. The home and the lakshman rekha drawn around it stymies the choices, freedoms and rights of several women, for whom the world outside could be an ally and an opportunity. As this lockdown shuts down that vital breathing space, the government cannot stay gender-blind in their emergency response. Much like they have scrambled, if belatedly, to respond to the needs of migrant workers, a gender-sensitive response needs to be thought through, pooling in the resources of community health workers and activists, to reach out to women caught in potentially violent situations. Shelters and helplines for women must be up and running. The UN, for instance, has advised countries to send out a strong message against domestic violence via law enforcement agencies; this is the time for police officers across the country, too, to exhibit zero tolerance for abusers. The weight of the unfolding economic crisis will also, most likely, fall disproportionately on women and girls — from loss of jobs to hunger and the shrinking of schooling opportunities. As the lockdown stretches on, urgent measures might be needed to keep India’s women and children not only home — but also safe.