Psychological impact of domestic violence on women in India due to COVID-19

Abstract

Purpose

The COVID-19 outbreak has significant psychological effects because of reduced support system and social quarantine, making women the worst-hit population of shadow pandemic, i.e. domestic violence. While food shortages, unemployment and increased domestic-work burdens are the immediate effects of the lockdown, women at home have to bear its far-reaching impacts in the long term in the form of domestic abuse, making the study of the psychological impact of domestic violence against women imperative. This paper aims to identify the factors and causes responsible for domestic violence and its psychological impacts on women in different aspects. This paper further focuses on the reasons behind an escalation in psychological violence against women.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is based on extrapolating data from various journal articles, Indian Government reports, newspaper articles and other printed materials that are recent, relevant and discuss domestic violence and mental stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers use Indian National Commission for Women’s (NCW) data on complaints received regarding violence against women and domestic abuse in the year 2020 and 15 journal articles that discuss domestic violence against women during the COVID-19 period in different countries to discuss social inequalities and power relations impact on women’ mental health.

Findings

The findings suggest that economic instability during the pandemic and social and cultural norms of India ignited psychological abuse against women during the pandemic. The number of monthly complaints of dowry death, dowry harassment and protection of women against domestic violence reflect on increased registered complaints in the postlockdown period in the year 2020. The number of monthly complaints received by the NCW from January 2020 to December 2020 in India represents that WhatsApp chat is a powerful tool for reporting domestic violence.

Originality/value

The pandemic lockdown has an adverse psychological impact on women, making them suffer from posttraumatic symptoms, substance abuse, panic attacks, depressions, hallucinations, eating disorders, self-harm, etc. This paper strives to reflect upon mitigation strategies to curb domestic violence in India.

Citation

Tripathi, P., Dwivedi, P.S. and Sharma, S. (2023), "Psychological impact of domestic violence on women in India due to COVID-19", International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 146-161. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHRH-12-2021-0208

Introduction

The COVID-19 virus erupted at the end of 2019 and covered the whole world in a short span, taking the shape and size of the global pandemic, affecting every aspect of human life. To prevent the spread of the pandemic, several governments adopted preventive measures such as lockdown, travel limitations, physical distancing, distant socializing and banned public gatherings (Nigam, 2020). Moreover, governments had to divert huge funds from development to immediate prevention, containment and cure for saving human lives. This derailed engine of growth from its track in most nations, disrupting manufacturing and service sectors, creating unemployment, soaring inflation and deteriorating quality of life (Pak et al., 2020). Measures to contain pandemic, especially lockdown, have created a conducive environment of domestic abuse that adversely affected minorities, economically weaker sections, women and children and withdrew their social support system.

Domestic violence means violence within home premises, a place that otherwise should be a safe space for all the family members. It can be inflicted on anyone by a married or cohabitant partner, relative, in-laws or parents (Bhardwaj, 2014). Domestic violence also includes child abuse and violence against adolescents, parents or the elderly (Huecker et al., 2022). It can be physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, economic, etc. (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2019). Globally, the women victims of domestic violence are more prone to encounter cruel forms of violence in comparison to men (Bhartiya Stree Shakti, 2017). Women and girls experience vehemence in open and closed quarters; the latest study, “Global Study on Homicide,” published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in 2018, emphasizes that the scariest place for women is home (UNODC, 2018).The victims of domestic violence face emotional abuse either directly or indirectly, affecting their mental or psychological health. As per World Health Organization, mental or psychological health refers to the state of well-being in which a person understands his/her own ability to get by with their everyday activities and can operate productively with people and the environment (WHO, 2005).

Several reports emphasized that domestic violence cases intensified during the lockdown period in various countries (The Guardian, 2020). After lockdown, China, the UK, Brazil, France and Australia experienced an escalation in domestic abuse cases amid lockdowns (Ebrahimian, 2020; Godin, 2020). There has been a record rise in domestic violence cases in the USA (21%–35%) and France (30%) (Wagers, 2020; UN Women, 2020). The spike in complaints on helpline was noted in Cyprus (30%), Singapore (33%) and Argentina (25%) (Mlambo-Ngcuka, 2020). Domestic exploitation/abuse survivors in the UK and Northern Ireland faced challenges in accessing basic domestic abuse helpline facilities and psychological health support during the lockdown, which plummeted them to encounter the worst forms of abuse (Davidge, 2020). Because of the lockdown, domestic violence cases against women increased in many countries, including India, which emerged as a significant mental health threat for society. Thus, both COVID-19 pandemic and domestic violence seem to be “twin public health emergencies” (Ghoshal, 2020). In India, one in three women encounters intimate partner violence (IPV), and mostly the committers are familiar with the victims in 90% of the cases (BMJ, 2020; News18, 2020).

The domestic sphere has continued to produce and reproduce patriarchal attitudes and experiences for working and homemaker women. Patriarchal nature gets displayed in the forms of embodiment of power, superiority, cruelty, no payment for housework and the replication of the society in which the eldest male is the head of the family. The descent is reckoned through the male line as propagated through domestic methods, to bring up a child and marriage, etc. (Dixit and Chavan, 2021). Women cannot ignore their traditionally assigned duties and their sanskar (sacrament) of motherhood. If they fail to satisfy the needs and wishes of anyone at home, then they have to bear the anger and verbal brunt from family members for any laxity. The pandemic accentuated gender discrimination, along with domestic violence cases for both employed and unemployed women (UN Women, 2020). The working woman condition is no better and comfortable even if they do work from home (Bateman and Ross, 2020). Their work often remains incomplete or unsatisfactory in the eyes of colleagues and superiors. For this, they have to face blunt words, scolding and reprimanding by employers, seniors and bosses. Such incidences are no less torturous than physical violence perpetrated on them in the traditional patriarchal Indian society.

The pandemic and its subsequent lockdown resulted in job loss, retrenchment, salary cuts, etc., causing frustration, harsh irritants and unusual anger in the behavior of people. The accumulating outrage, at times, busts into abusive words and sometimes violent behaviors with women members, whether wives, mothers or daughters. It is severe for women in the traditional patriarchal society like India, where they struggle to lead a life of prolife and profreedom from torture which is a breach of fundamental human rights. These kinds of violence impair women’s physical and mental health, affecting the whole family and nation.

Objective

Previous studies also mention that the danger of severe emotional impact goes up with the period of isolation or quarantine going up (Brooks et al., 2020). Postlockdown, the occurrence of domestic violence escalated globally. Still, little research evaluates the effect of lockdown on domestic violence and its psychological impact on women in India. During the past few months, a significant rise in domestic violence cases was evident in The Print (2020) and electronic media because of COVID-19 ensuing lockdown in multiple nations. Along with other countries, India has also remained unexplored for this aspect of the pandemic. Considering these gaps, the paper attempted to scrutinize the psychological impact of domestic violence because of COVID-19 and lockdown on women. The paper aims to identify the factors and causes responsible for domestic violence and its psychological impacts on women in various aspects.

Methodology

This paper is based on extrapolating data from reports, newspapers, journal articles and other printed materials and similar documents. This paper takes data from up-to-date and relevant literature on domestic violence and mental stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis is constructed by using Indian National Commission for Women’s (NCW) data on complaints received regarding violence against women and domestic abuse in the year 2020 and 14 journal articles and a report that discusses domestic violence against women during the COVID-19 period in different countries, which bring into light the prevalent social inequalities and the impact of replicating unequal (gender and other) power relations in society and its impact on women’ mental health.

Flow chart of the selection of reviewed articles

Findings

Table 1 and Figure 1 show the number of monthly complaints of dowry death, dowry harassment and protection of women against domestic violence recorded by the NCW from January to December 2020. Figure 1 depicts that the complaints regarding dowry and domestic abuse were more from January to March 2020, but these cases declined during the beginning of lockdown, except for protection against domestic violence. Dowry and domestic violence complaints reached their peak in July 2020. However, with a little variation in the cases of harassment of married women or dowry harassment after lockdown, its second peak was visible in November 2020. India had a strict lockdown from the end of March to May 2020. The findings indicate that the decline in cases after introducing the lockdown is because of confinement within their houses, sharing the place with the abuser and less connectivity or awareness reporting complaints. Therefore, the numbers of cases were more in the postlockdown period. The results of Table 1 denote that lockdown pushed several victims toward self-harm or death; it indicates that physical, psychological and economic abuse of women during the pandemic caused serious physical injuries and psychological traumas.

The spurt in complaints after the lockdown was the result of exhaustion of savings, pandemic fatigue and economic uncertainties. The complaints increased in the postlockdown period, as victims could report to authorities by physically visiting them or receiving physical assistance from the concerned protection officers. It indicates a lack of awareness regarding emergency helplines like 181 and 1091 among women might also be a reason for underreporting cases. Second, social stigma regarding reporting, fear of the consequence of reporting and economic dependency also restricts women from reporting against domestic violence during the crisis period.

Table 2 and Figure 2 demonstrate the total number of complaints received by NCW regarding domestic violence against women and the total number of complaints received by NCW regarding violence against women, such as acid attacks, bigamy/polygamy, cybercrimes, rejection from maternity benefits, dowry deaths, gender discrimination (including the equal right of work and education), not providing free legal aid for women, protection of women against domestic violence, harassment for dowry, an obscene portrayal of women, rape and attempt to physical abuse/rape, refusal from right to choose in marriage, female feticide and sex-selective feticide, sexual harassment and emotional torture of women at the office or work area, voyeurism or stalking, prostitution and trafficking. Table 2 and Figure 2 exhibit an average of nearly 39.68% of complaints are reported regarding dowry death, dowry harassment and domestic violence against women. Among these, complaints of domestic abuse cases reached up to 48% in April month during the complete lockdown. Because of the rapid increase in violence during the pandemic, WhatsApp chat (+91-7217735372) was introduced as an additional measure shortly after the lockdown for enabling women to report complaints. This WhatsApp chat provided an option to report incidents of violence, leading to an escalation in the frequency of reporting violence cases. Also, with the beginning of the unlocking process in May end and June onward, the number of complaints of both domestic violence and violence against women increased. Therefore, it can be concluded that the cases of violence against women were decreasing in the first few weeks after adopting lockdown measures because the other form of violence against women outside the home premises decreased significantly. However, an increase in cases during the lockdown indicates an increase in violence against women inside the safe space, i.e. home, and the end of lockdown allowed them to report against their perpetrator. Hence, entrapment within the home, i.e. safe space, was unsafe for women that adversely impacted their physical and mental health.

• Muhammad (2020) emphasis the link between economic insecurity and violence. Muhammad states that the proportion of experiencing violence increased from 10% to 40% during the pandemic period in Jordan. For this study, the author used an online survey of 687 women, and findings discover that less than half of the violence experienced by women had been reported to the police and only 3.5% of perpetrators’ arrests were done. The main cause of experiencing violence during this period was unemployment among women.

• A study conducted by Aolymat (2021) on “The impact of COVID-19 on domestic violence and reproductive health in Jordan” indicates that incidents of domestic abuse increased (20.5%) during the lockdown period. For this study, 200 women were surveyed, and the result showed that violence increased because of spending more time with partners and families at home, reduced family income and limited access to health-care services during the pandemic.

• Berniell and Facchini (2021) stressed that domestic violence cases were at their peak in the first seven weeks of the lockdown and remained statistically significant until ten weeks during the lockdown. However, an increase was noticeable after the lockdown in every sampled country – Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, France, Germany, the USA, Spain, Italy, Mexico and the UK. The effect of violence in Latin American countries was only half compared to high-income countries like Germany, France and the USA.

• Dai et al. (2021) used police emergency helpline data from the Hubei domain of China during the lockdown of the COVID-19. It found that the average number of calls related to domestic violence increased, but overall calls to police decreased during the lockdown period. Shortly after the end of lockdown, other types of police calls returned to normal levels, but domestic violence calls remained high and took a long time to return to the usual level.

• The Table 3 presents the researchers analysis of research papers published on domestic violence and COVID-19 in 2020–2021. Relevant seminal text discussed in detail and cited appropriately in the Reference section.

• Fereidooni et al. (2021) showed that in Iran, the prevalence of IPV intensified during the pandemic in comparison with the prepandemic period from 54% to 65%, and over a quarter of women reported that they encountered IPV first time during COVID-19. For this, the authors surveyed 2,116 adults partnered women in Iran and found that employed women are less likely to be exposed to IPV than unemployed women.

• Research conducted by Haddad et al. (2020) on “The impact of COVID-19 on Rohingya and Bangladeshi adolescents” find that 8% of surveyed adolescents (boys and girls) reported an increase in gender-based violence during the pandemic. The authors used 1,761 phone surveys and 30 qualitative interviews of adolescent boys and girls in Bangladesh for this study. They found that married girls reported an increase in gender-based violence twice more in the community than unmarried girls.

• Halim et al. (2020) also highlighted an escalation in cases of IPV (83%), violence against children (68%) and harassment of women (65%) because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results indicated that food insecurity and lack of employment for women are correlated with increased cases of violence.

• Mahmood et al. (2021) find in Iraq an increase in the number of incidents of spousal violence after lockdown compared to prelockdown. For this study, the authors used online survey data of 346 married women and found that the occurrence rate of instances rose from 32% to 39%. A significant increase was discovered in the cases of emotional violence (humiliation), physical violence (hitting, hair and arms pulling) and forced sexual intercourse.

• Pattojoshi et al. (2020) reported an increase in the occurrences of spousal violence (18.1%), in which emotional and verbal violence was the most frequent among spouses, followed by physical violence and sexual violence by using an online survey of 560 women in India. In this study, about 5% of women reported that they experienced violence for the first time since lockdown, and 78% of women who experienced violence before lockdown reported an increase in the number of violence cases since lockdown. The most frequently perceived reasons for violence were financial limitations, poor socialization and sharing responsibilities for childcare.

• Pinchoff et al. (2021) found that incidents of violence against women increased inside (45%) and outside the home (24%) in Kenya. Approximately 8% of women reported an escalation in risk of household violence compared to men; this was noted in people with higher food insecurity.

• United Nations Population Fund et al. (2020) conducted a study on violence against women in Bangladesh, India, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand and the Philippines by using social media and internet search data and found that the most searched terms are related to gender-based violence across several Asian countries. The study showed an increase in gender-based violence-related searches between February and June 2020. Online support and services also increased between 10% and 70% for survivors, along with the rise in complaints during the lockdown in all examined countries.

• By using poll data procured online with the participation of 97 men and women in India, Sharma and Khokhar (2021) find that while 8.5% of respondents had experienced domestic violence in the past year, only 7.4% had experienced violence during the lockdown. Of those who experienced violence, 86% reported that the frequency of violence increased during the lockdown period. The authors find that the educational level of both victims and perpetrators is negatively associated with experiences of violence during the lockdown. But the violence is positively associated with pregnancy, spouses’ past divorce, loss of employment and extra-marital affairs of spouses. Here, most participants preferred to consult family or friends during violence compared to seeking legal support services.

• Eggers et al. (2021) observe an escalation of cases of violence in opposition to women (4%) and children (13%) during the days of COVID-19 compared to early March 2020 in Kenya.

• Haddad et al. (2021) find that psychological violence experiences are negatively associated with women’s pregnancy but positively associated with unwanted pregnancies during the lockdown period, though neither result was statistically significant. For this research, the authors used a study of 369 Lebanese women on the drivers of pregnancy outcomes during the COVID-19 period.

• By using qualitative interviews of women suffering from domestic violence, Mahapatro et al. (2021) find that limited help in the name of support was available for survivors of home/domestic exploitation during the COVID-19 epidemic in India and only a telephonic emergency helpline was available. The lockdowns also hindered the women from accessing their community and social media, which they typically depend upon for help and aid to deal with violence.

Discussion

The above findings portray a similar pattern of reported domestic violence complaints in India, as in any other country after the lockdown, which was fewer complaints during the lockdown. The literature evidently highlights that lockdown impacted humans psychologically, causing frustration and distress, culminating to domestic violence against the women in the closed space of home. According to the National Family Health Survey report, 2015–2016, 33% of women under study had an episode of spousal violence in the physical, sexual or psychological form (IIPS, ICF, 2017). This violence against women within the home increased because of the pandemic-induced lockdown. A report by National Legal Service Authority suggests a significant rise in domestic violence cases in India postlockdown period (Times of India, 2020). Prelockdowns, NCW recorded 257 reports of different types of violence against women, among which 69 reports were of domestic violence, i.e. around 26.84% of the total reported cases were associated with domestic abuse (The Print, 2020). Whereas, during the pandemic, just in Delhi, among 2,500 total registered complaints received on the emergency helpline number, about 1,612, i.e. approximately 64.84% of calls, were registered under the purview of domestic violence (Ratnam, 2021). According to the chairperson of NCW, Punjab leads in the number of cases recorded under domestic violence against women, recorded through email during lockdown (Das et al., 2020). Crimes against women have escalated by 21% in the year 2020. The number of violence against women has increased from 4,709 to 5,695, out of which domestic violence cases have risen from 3,287 to 3,993 since March 2020 (Tribune News Service, 2020). The actual instances of registered cases could be higher as most rural women cannot access assistance or call any emergency helpline. Further, the closure of school and offices, allowing work from home, added to the household chores and responsibilities of Indian women, exposing them to extra stress and increased levels of domestic violence from their abusive family members or partners (Ayittey et al., 2020; Mooi et al., 2021; Mukhtar, 2020).

Often, when women do not comply with the traditionally assigned duties, they face various kinds of psychological violence by their in-laws and other family members, like humiliation in front of family members, disrespect, scolding, putting down for not fulfilling their roles properly of mothers, wives, daughters-in-law, etc. Lockdown aggravated domestic violence and mental health issues, especially for women. During this period, people experienced distress, anxiety, fear of death, fear of getting infected themselves or their close ones, anger, depression, difficulty in communicating and other mental or emotional health troubles (Waleed et al., 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic has led to worry globally, advancing to emotional and money anxieties, uncertainties in life, loss of jobs, etc. It has its own behavioral and psychological impacts, leading to stress, arguments, fight, anger and different kinds of violence. The effect of domestic violence on emotional and psychological health is threatening. Physical bruises can be seen and treated, but mental or psychological wounds are difficult to heal. If psychological scars and trauma do not get diagnosed in the early phase, it can lead to several long-term psychological impacts on people. It may bring hypertension, depression, hallucinations, hyperlipidemia, chronic musculoskeletal pain, eating disorders, obesity, cardiovascular disease and other social disorders (Campbell, 2020; Walker, 1999). Most of the physical violence victims experience mental trauma; Jackson (2002) studied a connection between traumatic brain injury and violation of women, where head hit leads to harsh perception anomaly. Such physical and emotional abuse because of domestic violence also develops suicidal tendencies among women (McFarlane, 2010). The following passages discuss the reason behind the psychological distress causing domestic violence and interventions to limit psychological suffering and domestic abuse.

Psychological impact of domestic violence on women because of economic instability

The COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown made women more vulnerable to perpetrators, which increased the risk of health threats and domestic violence. The home quarantine, financial instability, reduced income and unemployment became major reasons for lack of reporting against domestic violence, no motivation to approach external support and compelled the victim to stay with an abusive partner. The reduced home earnings create an economic burden on the family that might further escalate the risk of violence against women in future. The stress caused by not having a job can increase incidents of violence against women by initiating unpredictability and creating power imbalances within the home. It also leads to different problems like social, economic and psychological stress. The financial outcome of the COVID-19 outbreak may be lasting, and the dearth of jobs ultimately will turn many people destitute. Moreover, a long-term consequence of the pandemic-induced economic lapse may further reduce interpersonal bargaining power for women. Many women become economically dependent on their partners or next of kin because of losing their jobs during the outbreak. The terror of feeling or encountering abuse outside the home makes women adopt avoidance methods because of prevailing uncertainties. In addition, with limited job opportunities, the hope of women becoming financially and after that mentally independent has become obscure.

Several published research state that economic instability causes domestic violence that increases the occurrence of psychological disorders (Devries et al., 2013; Antai et al., 2014). In addition to physical abuse, emotional torture has led to similar or sometimes more harmful effects such as depressive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder (Devries et al., 2013). According to Bradbury-Jones and Isham (2020), the lockdown implemented to address the fast-spreading COVID-19 has allowed abusers to be near victims. Various studies link financial instability to an increase in psychological violence. Economic insecurity is one of the causes of adopting poor coping strategies, which sometimes leads to depression (Antai et al., 2014). During stressful situations, alcohol consumption is considered a coping mechanism. In the COVID-19 period, unpredictability about the health and economic instability escalated the count of people turning to manage/coping mechanisms to alcohol. Having no place on the outside (restaurants or bars) to fulfill the alcohol cravings, a potential abuser consumes alcohol in the vicinity of his home or community. Therefore, consuming alcohol became a reason for aggressive behavior, particularly toward an intimate partner. As the outbreak increases daily stress, it also increases the possibility of women experiencing more violence at home. The rise in pandemic increased the threat of IPV by spouses’ greater alcohol consumption and kept the perpetrator in proximity.

Psychological impact of domestic violence on women because of social and cultural norms

Several studies analyzed the impact and found that the psychological impact of the pandemic and long spell lockdown is more profound and perilous than its impacts on other aspects. As per Patel(2021), almost 29% of married adolescents (15–19 years) had faced emotional, 23% faced physical, and 26% faced sexual violence, respectively. It reveals that about 8% of married and 5% of unmarried adolescent girls suffer from high depressive symptoms. In total, 71% of unmarried adolescent girls (between the ages of about 13 and 17 years) who have seen their fathers hitting or harassing their mothers and 90% of the adolescent girls who were bullied or humiliated in front of others have higher chances of suffering from higher depressive symptoms. The emotional abuse encountered by women and young children, not only affects the present psychological well-being of the house but also have long-term consequences, which is why several experts call domestic violence a “shadow pandemic” (UN Women, 2020).

The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown affected the economic, psychological, social and cultural dimensions of human society. During this period, people have to stay at home to prevent the virus infection. Therefore, cultural programs, religious practices and major festivals of different states were postponed or celebrated within home boundaries. Assembling in any public place like temples, churches, theaters, parks, etc., was restricted. Social distancing, closures of schools and overburdened household works have increased the demand for women and girls to provide the family’s basic survival needs and care. The discriminatory social norms of a patriarchal society that differentiate between gender roles at home are reasons for women being overburdened with work compared to men (UN Women, 2020). Such cases are mostly found among people living in poverty or rural, isolated locations. These communal factors had been causing physical and emotional distress and vehemence among people by creating a difference of opinion disputes among the people in such a society. If a woman stays within the four walls of her home, it will mostly lead women to depression, lethargy and exacerbation of previous illnesses like stress, hypertension and anxiety.

Interventions for protection of women

The government should provide easily accessible shelters, online counseling and increased resources for supporting hotlines for addressing violence against women. The government should provide psychological and social support to women who are affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, such as domestic violence victims, women frontline health workers and other social support staff, on a priority basis. A strong message from Law Enforcement that “Impunity Will Not Be Tolerated” should be conveyed. Police and other social justice authorities must ensure that gender-based violence should be addressed with the utmost priority, and utmost care must be taken for handling the occurrence of violence appearing in the context of COVID-19.

Communities should adopt behavior modification policies to imbibe the outbreaks’ negative results by restructuring the situation to improve the psychological health of victims through mindfulness, self-actualization, cultivating resilience, mental health managing methods, health issues resolution, educating good emotions and curbing destructive emotions via behavior change. A decrease in access to medical services by the governments can lead to difficulties in identifying signs of violence against women. Reduction in access to contraceptives and health services leads to unwanted pregnancies, leading to mental stress among women. Therefore, the government should develop health infrastructures, paramedical staff, nurses, etc., to reduce the rural–urban gap in health care and related infrastructures. It is noticed that health infrastructures and the workforce are readily available in urban areas but not in rural areas. Rural India is facing inadequate staffing and infrastructures in the health sector. State governments should address the violence against women on a war-footing basis by raising funds to assess the situation through surveys/research and provide appropriate services as per need. It is vital to ensure women’s physical and mental fitness. Hence, it is advised that state governments shall ensure that survivors of any form of abuse must have access to health-care services during the lockdown, virus outbreak or any other emergencies.

Experts suggest the necessity to train health-care workers to identify the signs of violence to counter gender-based violence (Gerster, 2020). Therefore, health-care workers, who are assisting women, need to have adequate time and resources and be trained to handle emotions. They should be trained to understand the psychology of the victims, sign language and body language. The victims can often communicate in sign language and indirect ways, which might get easily misplaced. They can also provide awareness regarding the online services and emergency helplines for those looking for healing interventions, counseling or any other form of support (Bradbury-Jones and Isham, 2020). Moreover, multidisciplinary staff, including psychiatrists, psychologists and legal services, who can evaluate various forms of violence are essential for preventing domestic violence and safeguarding the interests of women (Mazza et al., 2020).

Neighbors of families suffering from abuse/violence can also help victims to decrease the impact of domestic violence by conversing with them. The media should highlight the complication of gender violence and raise awareness. These may include encouraging safety guidelines via advertisements. It is imperative to increase emergency helpline support, spread awareness regarding available help and raise funds for social security and shelters during isolation (van Gelder et al., 2020). The local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) should spread awareness regarding the women’s helpline numbers and law officers’ information to make legal help easily accessible to the victims. Helpline numbers such as 181 and 1091 should be publicized and made functional in all areas. Special protocols should be developed for supporting disabled women, transgender, migrant and marginalized women and those who have limited access to support. A panel of lawyers should be formed for offering legal assistance to women, especially during a crisis period like a pandemic. Nirbhaya funds can be used through the NGOs for providing legal aid, counseling services and shelter to women suffering from violence.

Conclusion

The spread of the COVID-19 and the implementation of lockdown have created numerous problems for the people. The governments had to impose lockdown in their respective countries to reduce the spread of COVID-19 infection because of the nonavailability or insufficient availability of vaccines and effective treatment. One of the significant consequences of the lockdown is rising gender violence, especially domestic violence during the crisis. The occurrences of domestic abuse and violence against women spike up during the pandemic, especially in China, France, the UK, Australia, the USA, Brazil and India. These cases are mostly reported through print, electronic media and calls received from emergency helpline numbers, especially in Cyprus, Singapore and India. Because of increased domestic violence cases, the demand for emergency shelters also increased in Germany, Canada, the USA, Spain and the UK. Financial anxieties, insecurity of life, loss of a job, cramped and confined living conditions, the burden of household chores (cook, feed and take care of family members), closure of schools, alcohol consumption, fear of death, fear of getting infected from the diseases, anger, unwanted pregnancies, reduced spousal income and restricted mobility are the major causes for increasing the number of cases of domestic violence during COVID-19 pandemic. These causes have an adverse psychological impact on women, leading to stress, arguments, fight, anger, interpersonal issues, negative emotions, unhealthy relations, emotional and behavioral disorders and the tendency to get affected by traumatic events. The affected person may also suffer from sorrow, helplessness, hopelessness, posttraumatic symptoms, shame, substance abuse, panic attacks, loneliness, difficulties in making decisions, depressions, hallucinations, eating disorder, poor coping strategies, poor self-acceptance, confusion as well as other social disorders. Even many times, victims of violence experience suicidal thoughts and even attempted suicides. Many psychologically distressed women feel that they are considered soulless slaves or objects for the happiness of others.

The effect of domestic violence on women is long-lasting, which may affect their personal and professional life. Thus, the cases of domestic violence should have speedy trials with utmost urgency, especially during crises. Based on the above literature, it can be asserted that there is a need for a holistic response to deal with the cases of violence during current and future crisis. A team of health professionals, media and community leaders should be formed to deal with the issue of violence within the community. First, states should focus on reducing the gender differentiation of roles at school level, children should be given gender neutral environment where they are trained to become independent and responsible adults. Second, governments should launch an awareness drive at the national level regarding mental health issues arising out of domestic abuse and available help against the violence, through television, radios, street shows, social media, panchayats and Asha workers. Further, economic uncertainties and unemployment should be dealt immediately by creating employment opportunities for adults to reduce the economic frustration of the families and domestic violence incidents. Moreover, continuous efforts are required to end the stigma associated with gender-based violence for bringing equality among both males and females.

Figures

Figure 1

Number of monthly complaints received by NCW from January 2020 to December 2020 of dowry deaths, dowry harassments and protection of women against domestic violence, India

Figure 2

Number of monthly complaints received by the National Commission for Women from January 2020 to December 2020, India

Table 1

Number of monthly complaints of dowry death, dowry harassment and protection of women against domestic violence received by the National Commission for Women from January 2020 to December 2020, India

Sr. No.	Month (2020)	Dowry deaths	Harassment for dowry of married women	Protection against domestic violence	Total complaints received by the NCW for domestic abuse against women
1	January	32	267	271	570
2	February	17	221	302	540
3	March	18	203	298	519
4	April	9	62	315	386
5	May	27	159	393	579
6	June	27	273	461	761
7	July	49	493	660	1,202
8	August	32	352	539	923
9	September	29	372	492	893
10	October	26	429	495	950
11	November	37	509	485	1,031
12	December	27	448	586	1,061
Total cases in year 2020		330	3,788	5,297	9,415

Source: Nature Wise Report of the Complaints Received by NCW, 2020 (National Commission for Women, 2020) from http://ncwapps.nic.in/frmReportNature.aspx?Year=2020

Table 2

Number of monthly complaints received by the National Commission for Women from January 2020 to December 2020, India

Sr. No.	Month (2020)	Total complaints received by the NCW for domestic abuse against women	Total complaints received by the NCW for violence against women	Percentage of complaint received by NCW regarding domestic abuse
1	January	570	1,462	38.98%
2	February	540	1,424	37.92%
3	March	519	1,347	38.53%
4	April	386	800	48.25%
5	May	579	1,500	38.6%
6	June	761	2,043	37.24
7	July	1,202	2,914	41.24%
8	August	923	2,128	43.37%
9	September	893	2,318	38.52%
10	October	950	2,373	40.03%
11	November	1,031	2,884	35.74%
12	December	1,061	2,529	41.95%
Total complaint received in the year 2020		9,415	23,722	39.68%

Source: Nature Wise Report of the Complaints Received by NCW, 2020 (Parliament Of India Rajya Sabha, 2021) from https://rajyasabha.nic.in/rsnew/Committee_site/Committee_File/ReportFile/15/143/230_2021_3_14.pdf

Table 3

Papers that measure impacts of COVID-19 on violence against women

Sr. No.	Authors and year	Location	Data sources	Indicators	Findings
1	Muhammad (2020)	Jordan	Online survey data	Violence against women	Increased
2	Aolymat (2021)	Jordan	Online survey data	Domestic violence	Increased
3	Berniell and Facchini (2021)	Brazil, Chile, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the UK, France, the USA, Argentina, Colombia	Google search data and Google mobility data	Domestic violence	Increased
4	Dai et al. (2021)	Hubei, China	Police service calls	Domestic violence	Increased
5	Fereidooni et al. (2021)	Isfahan, Iran	Face-to-face survey data collected during preepidemic and phone calls data during the epidemic	Intimate partner violence (IPV)	Increased
6	Haddad et al. (2020)	Bangladesh	Survey data through phone and qualitative interviews	Gender-based violence and police violence	Increased
7	Halim et al. (2020)	Indonesia	Phone survey data	Intimate partner violence, violence against children and harassment reported in the community	Increased
8	Mahmood et al. (2021)	Kurdistan region, Iraq	Online survey data	Spousal violence	Increased
9	Pattojoshi et al. (2020)	India	Online survey data	Spousal violence (including emotional, verbal and physical and sexual)	Increased
10	Pinchoff et al. (2021)	Nairobi, Kenya	Online survey data	Household violence and violence outside the home	Increased
11	United Nations Population Fund et al. (2020)	Nepal, Thailand, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Indonesia	Social media data and internet search data	Violence against women	Increased
12	Sharma and Khokhar (2021)	India	Online survey data	Domestic violence	Mixed
13	Eggers et al. (2021)	Kenya	Survey data (phone)	IPV and violence against children	No change
14	Haddad et al. (2021)	Lebanon	A cross-sectional online-based study	Unwanted pregnancy and psychological violence	Increased
15	Mahapatro (2021)	India	Telephonic survey data	Domestic violence	Increased

Source: Researchers analysis of research papers published on domestic violence and COVID-19 in 2020–2021. Relevant seminal text discussed in detail and cited appropriately in the Reference section