Essay: Domestic violence has increased during pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented challenges and disruptions to societies worldwide. Beyond its immediate health implications, the pandemic has also exacerbated existing social issues, with one notable concern being the alarming rise in domestic violence cases.

As lockdowns and social distancing measures became necessary to curb the spread of the virus, many individuals found themselves confined to their homes, often in close quarters with their abusers.

Domestic violence is not recent or globally widespread, and it would be wrong to deny the possibility that violence against women would escalate during the pandemic.

Domestic Violence

Data on domestic violence since the pandemic is still sparse, and the exact proportion of the occurrence of such incidents is not known. To gather information, provide advice, and increase awareness about the unique effects of the pandemic and its implications on women, several companies and agencies are taking major steps.

Agencies and NGOs stated that more calls were received relative to the non-pandemic era (Konokkara, 2020). However, It is unclear whether these calls are connected to a crime or other means of assistance, such as where food, medication, and other vital things can be accessed during the lockout.

Where both are similarly aggressive, domestic violence affects both males and females. In such a situation, the cases mentioned imagine one side of the story portraying women as being vulnerable to domestic violence as lesser sex, where men are offenders and women are victims.

It also raises questions about gender inequality in reporting from a female viewpoint on domestic abuse incidents, sidelining male problems.

While existing data are useful alternatives in the absence of population-based projections before and after the COVID-19 lockdowns, suggesting an upswing in global re-victimization of crime, it would be early to extrapolate or relate such recorded cases specifically to the COVID-19 pandemic alone.