Amid Corona Lockdown NCW receives 315 domestic violence complaints in April

A girl being physically abused to get married and a man seeking protection for her sister being beaten at her in-laws home were among 315 complaints of domestic violence received by the NCW in April, when the country was under a lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. The 315 complaints were received online and on WhatsApp and no complaint was received by post last month. Despite that, the complaints were highest since August last year, the NCW data showed.

During previous months, the complaints included those received online and those received by posts. NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma has said the high numbers can be attributed to the lockdown imposed since March 25,  which has locked the abuser and the victim together. The NCW has launched a WhatsApp number-7217735372  to report cases of domestic violence. It shared a few case studies of the kind of domestic violence complaints they have received during the lock-down period.

In one of the cases, a girl complained that she is being beaten up by her parents and forced to get married. The NCW contacted the police following her complaint and she was shifted to a shelter home. In another case, a man in Tripura complained to NCW that his sister was being physically abused in her in-laws home and she is not able to step out due to lockdown. "We coordinated with the police which rescued her," an NCW member said.

Another set of cases relate to women getting locked out of their in-laws home. "Each case is different and whatever the requirement is we act accordingly," the member said. In a bid to facilitate women to reach out to seek aid, a number of helpline numbers have been launched for reporting crimes against women, especially domestic violence. A total of 800 complaints were received by NCW of various crimes committed against women, the NCW data showed.

While domestic violence constituted nearly 40 per cent of the total, the other offence which saw a significant rise in the month of April was cyber crime. Experts have attributed the rise to the ongoing lockdown which has resulted in "caged predators" attacking women online. According to the NCW data, 54 cyber complaints (online) were received in April in comparison to 37 (online and by post) in March and 21 (online and by post) in February.

Due to lockdown, only online complaints were received in April. India is currently under the world's biggest lockdown with around 1.3 billion people asked to stay home in view of the coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed over 1,300 lives and infected 39,980 people in the country.