The grasp of domestic violence perpetrators has tightened in times of the pandemic in Kashmir. Economic insecurity, financial instability, and isolation are some of the main factors that contribute to making domestic violence more prevalent nowadays. Even the world has shrunk into the four walls of our homes. The lockdown incapacitated women by preventing them from moving to safer places in cases of violence and abuse. With men and women cohabiting together for longer periods, the privacy of women plummeted and instances of violence rose. In this lock-down men usually have nothing substantial to do at home and thus a good majority of them feel having a secondary importance at home. There have been cases where men did not take this thing sportingly. Cases of domestic violence where women are invariably the victims are on the rise in south-Asia and every day we hear of scores of women getting fatally injured at the hands of their husbands.
Also Read : LG flags off IFFCO’s Nano Urea bottles to farmers
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, emerging data and reports from those on the front lines, have shown that all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence, has intensified. Even though in Kashmir the cases of domestic violence before the pandemic were few, since the Covid lockdown, the cases have risen. Men and women should understand that this lock-down is a temporary period. Sooner things would get better. You can take an equally dominating position in your home by helping womenfolk in the daily chores. This way men can also get acquainted with the struggles that the women folk have to endure on a daily basis. Globally, even before the Covid pandemic began, 1 in 3 women experienced physical or sexual violence mostly by an intimate partner. Emerging data shows an increase in calls to domestic violence helplines in many countries since the outbreak of Covid-19. We can be hopeful that it would be no soon that we are out of woods. Let us respect each other’s mental space when we are crowded up 24*7 in the small space we call our home. Nothing is permanent, not even Covid-19.
