Covid-19 Fostering Domestic Violence
With more than fifty countries under lockdown acting as a protective measure against COVID-19, there is another danger. According to the United Nations (UN), there is a shadow pandemic growing, of violence against women. When you hear the world quarantine the first word in your mind is restriction. However, for many women all over the world quarantine is much more than just restriction. Due to the lockdown, there has been a spike in domestic violence.
Ironically, for women the violence is not on the battlefield but in their own homes where they should feel safe. With social and economic tension filling the atmosphere in people’s homes it has created the perfect breeding place for fostering abusive behaviour. In developed countries such as Canada, France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom and United States government authorities have flagged increasing reports of domestic violence. Now if this is the situation in developed countries it is impossible to imagine the situation in developing countries. One in four countries still do not have adequate laws required to govern this human rights violation.
Although COVID-19 is testing us in many ways, this has to be one of the crucial problems that we as a global community are facing. The current circumstances make reporting domestic violence cases much harder for women than it was previously which include limitations to women’s access to helplines and disrupted public services. Local supports are paralyzed and short of funds. These circumstances are making us compromise the safety of the victims.
Contrary to many beliefs that the violence is just a social problem, it is also an economic problem. The global cost of violence against women has been estimated at USD 1.5 trillion. The figure will only rise given the current situation and continue to rise in the aftermath of the pandemic.
The horrifying global surge in domestic violence has led to a heightened demand for emergency shelters. Some adequate steps need to be taken in order to deal with this shadow pandemic. For example governments all over the world should take adequate steps as part of their national response in order to redress and prevent violence all over the world. Governments should make shelters and helplines available, funding should be improved and online counselling services should be started. The private sector should share information alerting the population as well as encourage them to move towards a positive future.
