The Corona virus crisis is placing all sorts of relationships to an extreme test. But many people are trying as hard as they can and are maneuvering the “new normal” with people they have not spent much time together or lived together for a long timeor have only just met. This trend is named as “corona cuffing” and the couples are termed as “coronnials”.
Working professionals seldom get sufficient time to spend with their family members. But the current 70 days lockdown, due to the Corona virus pandemic, supplemented with work from home, has effectively strengthened families. This constant close connection may become stressful at time because it started abruptly it provides a huge chance for spending quality time together with the family.
Work from home is strenuous as same as the 9 to 5 job in a cubicle, especially with an infant but the silver lining in this is that there is no need for video calls to see the toddler, one can observe his child playing all around during the day and the connection with kids can go stronger by helping with the homework and read some bedside stories to them to put them into sleep every night. The face to face long conversation with your partner, not through only voice calls or chats are making the conversation more effective. There is no such delay in communication over dropped calls, missed calls or voice messages. While so many couples have figured out their responsibilities to complete the household chores by dividing responsibilities, a vast majority has picked up common hobbies like cooking together or binge-watching their favourite shows, gardening together, watching football matches or playing video games and arguing over that even boiling up the mundane conversations. The partners are able to discuss financial constraint and any serious issue at workplace which they have not talked about before to get positive input from each other. And not only partners, this remains same between the working parents and their children. So we can say the nationwide lockdown to reduce down the infection of Coronavirus has strengthened relationships. [1]
Previously the chitchats were mostly limited to WhatsApp chats but due to the lockdown now, those who live in another state for job or studies, they are at home and have adequate time to talk with their parents or siblings and not limited to merewhatsapp chats.
Maybe we feel we are so played up because we never worked before our parents or siblings around us because it is like giving up tiny bits of freedom, but it is also peaceful knowing that the parents mostly don’t have to go to work during the pandemic outbreak and they are safe. The universe will definitely change after this pandemic is over but the boredom and anxiety, reluctance we face in self-isolation can only be shove off by the virtual and real accompaniment of our loved ones.
The ‘At Home Together’ survey was conducted amongst singles, newlyweds and married couples as well as those currently in a relationship, through the last two weeks of April 2020. It was found that 90 percent of the couples gave vote that they have been spending a considerable amount of time with each other, with almost 40 percent of them said that they are spending nearly 18 hours per day with their spouse.Since the announcement of the lockdown, it was reported that almost 46 percent have grew healthier habits by communicating more openly which improved their bond and lifestyle substantially and they have discovered new things about their spouses leading to shared joy.
Despite the negative vibe escalated by the pandemic, only less than 10 percent of the couples talked about their stained relationship. Since March 15, many couples are lining up to deepen their emotional connection which is 68% more than the 55% stage at pre-COVID period. However, 35% are less likely to discuss conflicting issues in healthy ways1 and only 18% of couples report that they are satisfied with the way they communicate with each other2.
Despite bizarre circumstances, the report imparts engaged couples are eager than ever to prioritize their love and affection in this challenging time. Meanwhile the 71% of the couple who are going to be wedded soon are feeling anxious, 62%of them are looking stressed and 50% of them are feeling overwhelmed. Most commonly, the positive impact on engaged couples’ relationships has resulted from finding new ways to spend time together (64%), reminding them what they care for each other (64%) and discussing mindboggling topics (54%), from finances and unemployment to preparedness for illness and death. Their relationship health priorities include managing finances together (49%), navigating disagreements in a healthy way (31%), and focusing on sexual intimacy (34%) and almost every third of the matched couples are having more sexual intercoursethan they used to have before the COVID-19 pandemic started in the US.
While prioritizing the relationship, it is also reported that people are paying back to their local communities: 34% of people have helped the elderly, infirm or those with higher health risks in recent weeks; 19% people have generously contributed to charities related to COVID-19 affairs; and nearly 1 in 10 engaged couples have also donated food or household essential, money to the needy.[2]
Domestic conflict and the real look of domestic violence notwithstanding any family bond-
But now comes the dreadful and negative part. We are very well acquainted with the term domestic violence, which is used in many countries to refer to violence by intimate partner, but it also consolidates child and elder abuse, and abuse by any other member of a household. It includes-
- Physical aggression – Punching, kicking, slapping, choking or using weapons against the victim.
- Sexual assault – Indecent assault or any unwanted sexual touch, rape (with or without threats of other violence and without consent or forcefully making the partner to watch pornography.
- Coercive methods- By threatening the partner by telling that his/her children, pets or shelter over the head will be taken away.
- Intimidating way- Scaring a person using looks, actions or gestures.
- Psychological/Mental abuse – Using words and other strategies to insult, threaten, degrade, abuse or denigrate the victim.[3]
- Economic abuse – Controlling and stopping access to most important resources such as money and property.
Although women alone do not face domestic violence but the rates of abuse and violence targeting women are highest, mostly from perpetrators well known to them. As per the World Health Organization, one in every three women out in the world experience physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime; and 30 percent of all women have gone throughone or the other kind of physical and/or sexual violence by their partners in any kind of relationship.
Condition and cases of domestic violence in India-
From the Crime in India Report 2018, published by the National Crime Research Bureau (NCRB), a woman faces domestic violence every 4.4 minutes and crime is recorded against women in India every 1.7 minutes. It is extremely sad to say that India is at 4th worst position to maintain the gender equality to women. According to the data, 89,097 cases related to crimes against women were registered across India in 2018, higher than the 86,001 cases registered in 2017and such cases are rising during lockdown. Where everyone is working from home now, the home is now treated as “workplace” from legal perspective and women are filing cases of online harassment at “workplace”.
After few days of lockdown in India, the National Commission of Women (NCW) noted a hike in the number of domestic violence complaints they are receiving via email. The NCW chairperson believes that this does not represent the real figure, since a high volume of complaints from women generally come by post, and might not be able to use neither the internet, nor the space and time to call for help because of constant vigilance of their partners around them, Between the beginning of March and April 5th, the NCW received 310 grievances of domestic violence and 885 complaints for other forms of violence against women, which came in the shape of bigamy, polygamy, dowry deaths, and harassment for dowry.
To stop such instances we need an aggressive nationwide agenda to promote conciousness about domestic violence, and make people aware of the several methods through which complaints can be filed. National news channels, radio channels, and social media platforms must be strategically used for advocating such awareness and campaigns.
Condition and cases of domestic violence in foreign countries-
To spread the alertness in France and Spain, pharmacies are trained to identify people from customers facing abuse through code-words: like ‘mask 19’ for those who cannot speak openly, to indicate that they are getting abused and are seeking help. Spain police says 18 percent more calls came in the emergency number assigned for domestic violence just in the first two weeks of lockdown than in any of the earlier months.
The French police report says that they faced about 30 percent hike across the country in cases of domestic violence. It is now compared that intimidating techniques used in the domestic violence to dominate and repress the spouses and children carry an eerie alikeness to the way kidnappers regulate their hostages and to the repressive regimes governments use to interrogate political prisoners. The common tools of such coercive restrain include isolation from friends, peers, family and colleagues; strict and constant surveillance; thorough routine behavior and restrictions on access to basic necessities such as food, clothing and sanitary facilities.
Which classes/groups of women are at higher risk during this lockdown?
Besides women of some groups are at a higher risk to face domestic violence. Various researches provethat race and age play a commendable role in likeliness of a person to experience abuse from an intimate partner. Women with certain incompetencies are more vulnerable to rape and sexual assault and other kinds of sexual coercion too. It is very pathetic that minorities and older women are at particularly higher risk. And a protensive study found that the violent crime rate by the intimate partner is highest in the poorest neighborhoods.
Those who belong to gender and sexual minority communities, and if this minority is about color, then they are unjustifiably more likely to be homeless or have wobbly shelter, have the tendency to be unemployed or underemployed. These stressors are increasing profusely during the lockdown. While bars, restaurants and drive-ins are being circumscribed to take-out service only in many neighborhood or communities, alcohol abusers who are also family violence perpetrators are creating a whole abusive platform at their home 24×7 and this is definitely increasing risk factor for the entire household.
Not only alcohol abusers but surprisingly the sales rate of gun and ammunition is going leaps and bounds in the U.S. during the crisis, which is notably depicting the clear link between firearm access and fatal incidents of domestic violence.[4]
We generally consider the adult victims of family violence, but children and pets too reside in 60 % or more of households where domestic violence is a common scene and are also at high risk of suffering momentous physical and/or emotional trauma. Researchers have drawn an estimate thatchildren residing in a home where domestic violence occurs time and again are facing 60 times more risk of child abuse or neglect in comparison to what general U.S. child population suffer.The domestic violence is not delimited to women and children but additionally it is also extending to harming animals in the home. It is calculated that 80 % of victims residing in a home which is a hub of both domestic violence and pet abuse, report their daily fear of the chance getting slaughtered by the husband or the father as the case maybe.[5]
China, United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, Tunisia, France, Australia, and other nations too have reported cases of increased domestic violence .
The comparison of reports of domestic violence in the aftermath of natural disasters to the ones reported in current crisis-
The reports of domestic violence, alcohol abuse, stress among family members and their aggressive behavior have sped up by 46 % in Othello, Washington after the eruption of Mount St. Helens volcano.[6]Reports of psychological torture among women by their significant others increased by 35% after Hurricane Katrina, and reports on physical torture on women approximately doubled in the Mississippi counties.[7] The 2009 “Black Saturday” bushfires in Australia and 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti brought such analogous scenario. The instances have been similar aftermath of earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and several other catastrophic natural calamities around the globe.
Due to the Corona virus crisis, the prime organizations, institutions and offices are closed completely which was previously observed in the aftermath of such natural disasters. Meanwhile community togetherness is often appreciated to come out of shock of natural disasters, but the physical separation from our concomitant members of the locality, controlling behaviors, unemployment and limited access to social support systemsare stimulating the current crisis. All of these are resulting in abundance of family violence reports during the lockdown and it is expected that such reportsafter the Covid-19 pandemic will cross the record of the reports submitted during natural disasters and other catastrophic events.
Condition and cases of domestic violence at the heart of the outbreak: CHINA
In Hubei province, the core of the initial outbreak, reported cases of domestic violence increased threefold since the initiation of the pandemic. Evidently there is spike in divorce rates too. The country from where this virus spreaded first i.e. China is facing most of such cases. In the city of Xi’an in northwest province Shaanxi in China, the marriage registration offices saw an extraordinary number of divorce requestsfrom March onwards. In this era where everything is valued on the social media outrage, it is used for letting out the women’s grievances too. The hashtag “#Xi’an divorce appointment explosion” has reached 32 million reads on the social media platform Weibo.
In Beijing, the women’s rights NGO ‘Equality’ reported an efflux in calls to the organizational helpline number on issues of domestic violence, since February from where the lockdown measures were implemented throughout the country by the government. In Hong Kong, a domestic violence prevention centre and shelter called ‘Harmony House’, the number of admissions to the centre rose from 10 to 40, from January to April.
These are not the only stressors but women who are mothers too are having another burden of imparting more care for their kids to follow the quarantine measures and home-schooling situations. This is typically causing unequal divisions in household labour and the statistics say that women spend 2.5 times more time on unpaid care work than men in China, and this will affect women’s ability to participate in the workforce in future for long-term because women have to stay at home and take care of their families.[8]
Duties and responsibilities of the health sector to stop the violence?
Violence against women can result in injuries and genuine mental, physical, sexual and reproductive problems, sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancies and HIV.The helplines such as hotlines, crisis centers, shelters, legal aid, and protection services, access to vital sexual and reproductive health services may are also halted back which increase the abovementioned issues more.
COVID-19 is exaggerating risks of violence for women in the ways mentioned below-
And beyond all this we should not forget about the women health workers, who may be at risk for violence in their homes or in the workplace. Front-line providers who are directly involved with COVID-19 might experience arraignment, isolation, and they may get socially snubbed. Health managers or local administrators need to look for the safety of their health workers too..6
Governments and policy makers – they must set adequate measures and elementary services and response plans to respond to violence against women and response plans for COVID-19,
Health facilities should pinpoint and administer information about helping services available locally (e.g. hotlines, shelters, rape crisis centers, counselling) for survivors.
Health providers need to be well aware of the emanations and contingencies of this partner abuse. First-line support consists of: asking about the current needs and conditions, listening empathetically and without any judgment, giving validation to the feelings and emotions of survivors, heightening safety standards.
Humanitarian response organizations need to create information database to get the data reported cases of violence against women and services for women who are subjected to violence and their children in their COVID-19 response plans.
Community members should need to keep in touch with one another and support women in their surroundings subjected to violence, and they need to disseminate any information about any such domestic assault which can help a lot of people.
The harsh truth is we were at no better position to handle such problems but this pandemic situation is enhancing every problem to a great extent. Many organizations around the globe were already passing through the strain of ever-increasing cases and they did not have enough resources to fight with that. Now, the resources have depleted more and many are facing even greater barriers as they are struggling to find ways to reach these families who are completely separated from the remaining of their peers and are putting their life at stake. To improve relations between human welfare and animal welfare agencies, family violence victim-serving agencies must explore new and expanded community partnerships. Many workers from post office, courier service, food delivery staff or from the repairing service of home appliances are all working out there incessantly and traveling through several communities during the global crisis. So they have the chance to detect any problem or abuse happening to women in the neighborhood and can report about the incidents to the proper authorities.
Though everyone across the borders are not physically connected due to the threat of catching hold the virus, but nobody cannot control our opportunities to stay in touch mentally or psychologically.[9]
[1]Urban working professionals hit hard by India Covid-19 lockd .. Read more at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/74826837.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst (2020)
[2]18News, Coronavirus’ Impact on Indian Couples and How They’re Spending Time During Lockdown – News18 (2020), https://www.news18.com/news/lifestyle/coronavirus-impact-on-indian-couples-and-how-theyre-spending-time-during-lockdown-2621121.html.
[3]What is the Definition of Domestic Violence? (2018), https://family.findlaw.com/domestic-violence/what-is-domestic-violence.html.
[4]LiemMarieke, Patterns of multiple family homicide. (18 ed. 2014), Homicide Studies .
[5]Andrew Campbell, Ralph Hicks & Shannon thompson, Characteristics of Intimate Partner Violence incidents and the environments in which they occur: victim reports to responding law enforcement officers (2017), Journal of Interpersonal Violence
[6]Adams P & Adams G, Mount Saint Helens’sashfall: Evidence for a disaster stress reaction (1984), American Psychologist.
[7]Julie Schumacher, Scott Coffey & Fran Norris, Intimate Partner Violence and Hurricane Katrina: Predictors and Associated Mental Health Outcomes (2020), Violence Vict.
[8]Lockdowns around the world bring rise in domestic violence (2020), https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/mar/28/lockdowns-world-rise-domestic-violence.
[9]Violence against women What health workers can do, (2020), https://www.who.int/gender/violence/v9.pdf.
Prapti Bhattacharya
BA.LL.B(2nd Year)
Asian Law College, Noida