Abuse and isolation

In a timely warning to the world, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has highlighted a ‘horrifying global surge’ in domestic violence during the coronavirus crisis. He has urged governments to step up efforts to prevent violence against women. Though he has exclusively talked about violence against women, in countries such as Pakistan this also includes violence against children and transgender people. As a prolonged lockdown is affecting economies and straining medical systems around the world, emotional and psychological stress is increasingly becoming visible. But we cannot and should not allow abuse and violence to be justified as a result of the stress caused by the lockdown. Since the perpetrators of abuse and violence in most cases are men, they need to understand that it is not only them but children and women too who are suffering under the yoke of this pestilence. Lockdowns and quarantines are essential to suppressing Covid-19, but they are also resulting in the entrapment of children and women with abusive men.

Homes are places where people seek safety and security but if the very home becomes a torture cell, it is children and women who bear the brunt of the male wrath. This is tantamount to another public health crisis in the offing, as mounting data suggest that domestic abuse is acting like an additional infection whose prevention is as imperative as the cure for covidd-19. According to reports, in the UK there has been an upsurge of 25 percent in calls and online requests for help during the lockdown. And with each passing day such cases are rising. Under normal circumstances, a victim can walk out of the home but under the lockdown even that option is no more available to the victims of abuse and violence. The pandemic is bringing out the best and the worst in people. The best is demonstrated by doctors, paramedics and philanthropists, whereas the worst is displayed by those who use their emotional instability as an excuse to abuse the vulnerable, be they children, women or transgender persons.

Abusive relationships are a curse in any situation, and they become even more damaging and intolerable when an abuser is at home 24/7. As families are forced to remain in lockdown and spend more time together, there is a need to encourage and exercise restraint in human relationships. In most developed countries there are hotlines to report domestic violence; Pakistan too needs state-level intervention in this matter. It is a fundamental right of every individual to remain safe and secure, and it is no more a luxury to demand and expect a redress mechanism in cases of abuse and violence. There is also an immediate need to launch awareness campaigns on electronic media as most people are watching TV and may get the message to improve their behaviour at home.