NEW DELHI: An overwhelming 70% of calls received by the complaints cell of National Commission of Women (NCW) in 2020, a year dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic, related to women seeking to secure their right to live with dignity, protection from domestic violence and harassment of married women.
As many as 16,786 out of the 23,722 complaints received by the NCW over 12 months fell in the three categories. NCW categorises complaints across 24 categories and of the total complaints received in 2020, the highest number of complaints came from women seeking help to secure their right to live with dignity (7,708), followed by domestic violence (5,294) and 3,784 complaints relating to harassment of married women including complaints related to harassment for dowry. Besides these categories, there were 331 complaints related to dowry deaths.
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The worrying data, in all likelihood, is the tip of an iceberg. It points to a deep-rooted social malaise. No surprise, India is ranked 153 in the UN’s Gender Development Index. The concerned ministry must find ways and means to provide prompt remedies in such cases and to encourage more of those facing such issues to report them.
NCW also received 1,234 complaints related to rape and attempt to rape, 376 related to sexual harassment, 201 about sexual harassment at workplace and 110 complaints of sexual assault. There were 1,679 complaints of outraging the modesty of a women/ molestation and 704 complaints related to cyber crime.
Panel chief Rekha Sharma told TOI, "The unprecedented situation arising out of the pandemic has increased stress levels, anxiety, financial worry and instability, which in many instances resulted in domestic violence. Usually the cases were of a squabble between husband and wife on small issues. There were other cases also in which the in-laws had created hostile environment for women."
The "right to live with dignity" involves harassment other than domestic violence. If a woman is facing any sort of harassment (mental or physical), it amounts to breach of her right under Article 21 of the Constitution.