Bengaluru: Calls to women’s helpline zoom in May

BENGALURU: More than 800 callers approached the Parihar Vanitha Sahayavani (women’s helpline) in May, complaining of abuse of one kind or another, the highest number it has received in a month.
The helpline, set up by Bengaluru police, received and attended to 803 calls -- an average of 30 calls every working day. The helpline doesn’t work on Sundays. One factor was the re-opening of wine shops on May 3, with 43 women approaching the helpline to escape physical abuse at the hands of drunk husbands or guardians. In April, the helpline had received only one such call.
However, most calls (226) were of women seeking help citing mental harassment. A majority of these cases were linked to cybercrimes – of women harassed over private photos. There were also many cases of husbands abusing their wives and throwing tantrums.
In one case, a woman approached the helpline alleging her husband body-shamed her by passing remarks that she was fat, despite knowing she was eight months pregnant. The husband was warned with legal action. He apologized and assured counsellors he would not repeat it.
Rani Shetty, who supervises Parihar, said: “In more than a decade of existence, we have never ever received such a huge number of calls. The number of calls to the helpline never crossed 100, but in April and May it increased to 418 and 803 respectively.”
Shetty went on to say, “Most calls pertained to mental harassment and physical abuse. We had to counsel those involved over the phone since the lockdown was in place and we could not call them in for counselling. We informed police where immediate intervention was needed.”
Parihar counsellors say a majority of calls were from educated people. “The reasons for fights included sharing household work which would aggravate,” they said.
Shetty said: “We found unemployment, inability to make ends meet, drinking habits, uncertainty and work from home [which many do not like] were some reasons why couples picked up fights. We informed police in cases of physical abuse.”
The number of calls zoomed after 5pm, counsellors said. The helpline worked in two shifts: 8am to 2pm and 2pm to 8pm. BS Saraswathi, senior counsellor, said most callers contacted the helpline after sunset.
“In some cases we found they were waiting for their husbands to go out of the house to contact the helpline and in some cases, it would be because men would get drunk by evening and assault women,” Saraswathi said.