A Study On Shadow Pandemic In Tamil Nadu During Covid-19

Abstract

Domestic violence can be verbal, financial, psychological and sexual. It includes the abuser withholding financial or medical assistance. Women are most often the caregivers for those quarantined at home and already infected with the virus, which makes them more vulnerable to contracting the disease. Violence against women is already widespread and under-reported in India. Now, at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations recognises domestic violence against women as a “shadow pandemic”. The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a huge spike in domestic violence against women in China, Australia, France, the U.K., Spain, and Bangladesh, among others. In India, too, the National Commission for Women has reported a large increase in distress calls from victims of domestic violence since the pandemic broke out. The present study examines the relationships between economic and social factors that represent different dimensions of gender-based power and reported experience of domestic violence among 100 married women in Coimbatore District during this pandemic of Covid-19.