There’s a virus raging in the world but the old virus of domestic violence and abuse of women continues inside homes.
Cases of domestic violence have increased three-fold in the last year in the City
While the coronavirus is raging on the outside, inside homes, the old virus of abuse of women and girls continues.
With the lockdown in place and access to outdoors being limited, many women and girls suffered abuse and house arrest, according to the Vanitha Sahayavani / Parihar Family counselling centre.
During the second wave lockdown, the Centre was flooded with phone calls, three times the number as last year.
Six counsellors have been working continuously since last year without taking any breaks to help such women, says Rani Shetty, in charge of the Parihar helpline.
On Tuesday afternoon, a young girl who was kept under house arrest and assaulted physically by her parents was rescued and brought to the helpline office for counselling along with her parents.
The girl alleged that her parents had forced her to get married when she was not ready.
She decided to walk out of the marriage after one year and her parents, suspecting that she was in love with another man, locked her up at home.
Talking about the rise in violence against women, Shetty said, “The cases have increased three-fold compared to the previous year.
Between April 2019 and March 2020, we received about 937 cases whereas, between April 2020 and March 2021, we received 3,013 cases of dowry harassment, domestic violence, extramarital affairs etc.
We had been counselling them through phone calls but from Monday, we have started in-person counselling.
During the lockdown, most of the calls we received were from victims of physical assault from their husbands and in-laws.
In severe cases, we took assistance from the police and got the FIR registered.
Some would come for counselling and agree to reconciliation.”

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In a recent case, a techie who was kept under house arrest contacted the helpline asking to be rescued.
One of the counsellors at the helpline said, “They were married for five years and have a three-year-old daughter.
She was physically and mentally abused by her husband who would tie her hands and legs inside the house.
He had thrown her out of the house thrice and she was living in a hotel for some time before going back to the same house due to family pressure.
He had even choked her once and she had bruises on her hands and legs when she was rescued by our team.
She did not want to continue the marriage as he would often assault her.
He is also a software engineer and did not want to continue the marriage.
Currently, we are counselling her and she is yet to approach the police.”
The cases have increased three-fold compared to the previous year.
Between April 2019 and March 2020, we received about 937 cases whereas, between April 2020 and March 2021, we received 3,013 cases of dowry harassment, domestic violence, extramarital affairs etc–Rani Shetty, Parihar helpline in charge
KS Vimala, State Vice President of All India Janwadi Mahila Sangha said that the pandemic has created economic distress and many men use this to vent their frustration on women.
She said, “Domestic violence is not happening only among the poorer sections of the society.
The pandemic distress and lack of stability at work has affected people in many ways and the prolonged stay at home has naturally increased the conflict between family members and domestic violence.
The government should spread awareness about this and send out messages that such behaviour will invite punitive action.
The police are not taking action against the accused because of the pandemic and sending people home to resolve it among themselves.”
S Shanthamma, coordinator of Gamana Mahila Samuha (Kolar), an NGO working with victims of domestic abuse, said that cases of domestic abuse had increased in the rural areas too.
Stating one of the major reasons behind it, she says, “A lot of people lost jobs due to the pandemic and the alcohol addiction added to the violence.
Women would struggle to find petty jobs to keep the home fires burning.
The men who had lost their jobs would harass the women for money so that they could drink.
The police don’t take cognisance of these cases due to the pandemic and we have had to intervene too often to get cases registered against the husband.
In one such case, a woman was attacked by her husband on her head with a lethal weapon.
She managed to escape from her house and the neighbours tried to shift her to a nearby hospital.
But she succumbed on the way.”