By Mah Gull
What is going on?
The outbreak of the novel Covid-19 disease has emerged as a global public health crisis. Closure of public spaces, travel restrictions and lockdowns have been imposed to control the spread of the infection and to mitigate its impact. Restrictions have not only curtailed the spread of the disease but have led to a significant documented increase in the number and severity of Domestic violence incidents. Domestic violence encompasses a broad ‘range of violations that happen within a domestic space, including intimate partner violence, a form of abuse penetrated by a current or former partner’ (Bradbury-Jones & Isham, 2020). This blog will be looking at the relationship between Covid-19 measures and the correlating increase of domestic violence resulting from restrictions, with a particular focus on India. On the 24th of March, the Indian government imposed a national lockdown limiting movement and confining the population to their homes. However, such measures are increasing the incidence of domestic violence across the country (Sharma & Borah, 2020). Since the start of the pandemic, the reported crimes against women have risen by 21%, of which 700 are domestic violence cases.
(Issue of Domestic violence in India, Deccan Herald 2020)
The universal mantra of staying at home is ideally supposed to keep the population safe and protected, however, home is not always a safe place for many women and children, it is an arena of domestic, familial, physical, psychological and sexual violence. It is the private realm separated from any scrutiny where the dynamics of power can be distorted and blurred, so staying at home has many underlying implications especially for those susceptible to violence who don’t usually ascribe meanings of sanctity to their homes. The violence taking place in the domestic realm operates on a continuum of violence, where the most obvious forms of violence are the physical act of abuse. In India, Heena describes her husband as a ‘violent drug abuser, who regularly beats her to a pulp, leaving her body swollen and incapable of movement’. The description also encompasses elements of psychological control, with the perpetrator constantly at home there is no safe window during which the victim has time away from the abuse(r) or time to seek support. Stringent restrictions on movement have shut off avenues of support, escape and ways of coping for victims (Bradbury-Jones & Isham, 2020). These restrictive strategies work in favour of perpetrators who are violent through tactics of ‘surveillance, control and coercion’ (Jackson, 2020). Lockdown measures grant greater freedom to physically, psychologically and sexually violate victims without any external consequence and scrutiny.
Why is this happening?
Gilligan argues that violence springs from psychopathological roots of hidden shame and our ‘societal systems of response cause further shame’. Therefore, the increase in domestic violence in India is a response to eliminate the feeling of shame and humiliation (Gilligan, 2003). In India the Covid-19 crisis has amplified vulnerabilities by pushing an estimated 27 million more people into poverty and leaving 121 million people out of work. The secondary impacts of the pandemic have left many households exposed to vulnerabilities where it is usually the male figure in the house, whose responsibility it is to take care of the family. The male gender roles that are prevalent in the Indian patriarchal society have advocated that in order to be masculine and retain an adequate masculine sexual identity, male figures must take on the responsibilities of providing (food, income and resources) for their families. If this isn’t upheld, then it means the man is insufficient and foolish thus contributing to further shame. In addition to this, in order to restore the man's self-esteem and enforce control which he wasn’t able to do through nonviolent means, he must be violent in order to maintain his honour.
During the lockdown in India, majority of the population has been confined to their households experiencing isolation, lack of access to the outside world and suppressed rights of mobility similar to a prisoner subjected to punishment. This prison like situation has led to a spike in domestic violence cases as many men (the typical perpetrators) have lost their usual rights and privileges in society and so have resorted to displaying forms of violence against their subordinate female spouses to elevate their dignity and self-esteem as violence is a response to rage and aggression (Scheff, et al., 1991).
What does this mean?
The increased severity of domestic violence has been described as ‘The Shadow pandemic’ or as a ‘Pandemic within a pandemic’ (Evans, 2020). Practitioners in the field of development are recognizing that high levels of domestic (and other forms of violence) are significant barriers to economic growth and poverty reduction. Domestic violence impacts men and occurs in same-sex relationships. However, in India, it is mainly the women that are disproportionately affected by domestic violence. Domestic violence is linked to a variety of negative health outcomes both mental (PTSD) and physical (STI’s and undesired pregnancies) (Heise, 1994). The ramifications are borne by the individual and the wider community through direct and indirect costs which have economic and social consequences for the development of that community. Medical treatments can cause further economic stress for victims and their family whilst increasing the burden on health services especially as much of their resources have been directed to deal with the novel coronavirus (Bradbury-Jones & Isham, 2020). Additional financial costs include lost earnings, lost days at work, the need for emergency housing, psychiatric care and legal services. Economic costs of violence are not solely borne by the victim but the family, public services and wider society.
Furthermore, the threat and act of domestic violence impede on women's participation in society (Labour force, education and networks) Women are encouraged by the state and development agencies to engage and participate in the public sphere, but this is near impossible when they are overloaded with physical and psychological scars of violence and the threat of abuse that may precipitate again (Sen, 1997). In addition to this development theories are centred around the notion of expanding people’s choice and autonomy (Purna, 1998), however as expressed before domestic violence is an expression of power to seek control. This directly limits women’s control over their own bodies, lives and choice. As long as there is domestic violence and other forms of violence their autonomy and choices will not be exercised or expanded freely.
The troubling paradoxes of lockdown measures to curtail the spread of the virus has increased the cases of domestic violence and gender-based violence in India. The violence makes marginalised and subordinated groups more invisible.
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