RISE IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ISSUES DURING LOCK-DOWNS DUE TO COVID-19

Since December 2019, the world witnessed the rise of a new pandemic viral infection – Covid-19. Although the first case in India was reported in January 2020 (Kerala), it was in late March that India started witnessing the rise of new confirmed cases across multiple Indian cities. It was soon realized that the microdroplets and human-to-human contact were responsible for the spread of infection. After that, the Indian government called for a nationwide lockdown across all Indian states. Social gatherings, transportation, educational institutions, and places of religious significance were closed entirely. From 25th March 2020 onwards, all the service sectors were wholly suspended. Most of the companies have initiated work from home (WFH) to maintain a balance between the companys profit and loss, supplementing their employees with their economic stability, etc. Although work from home has been successful to date in leveraging their profit-loss balance, it leads to a rise in the number of domestic violence occurrences. Covid-19 pandemic has contributed to the rising Violence against Women and Children across all regions. Examples include domestic financial and health stresses, loss of womans livelihood, restricted or no access of women to all the basic amenities, stress and complications related to social isolation, women confinement with violent partners under one roof. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the co-relation between COVID-19 and domestic violence in India and provide suggestive measures to deal with the issue.