A LEGAL STUDY OF SURGE IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DURING COVID-19 IN INDIA

Authors – Simandeep kaur & Aabha Gandhi, Students of School of Law, Christ (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, India

Best Citation – Simandeep kaur & Aabha Gandhi, A LEGAL STUDY OF SURGE IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DURING COVID-19 IN INDIA, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE, 1 (1) of 2023, Pg. 1-6, ISBN (P) – 978-81-960702-2-9.

ABSTRACT

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 was  the first act to use ‘Domestic violence’ in legal terms and  had such a broad ambit that it included within itself not only physical violence but also mental, verbal and economic violence. The landmark judgment of S.R Batra case was the first prominent judgment with the purview of domestic violence law that protects the rights of women. Despite having such a broad ambit of domestic laws, the women’s insecurity has increased drastically with passage of time and spiked during the lockdown phase. This leads the authors to check the efficacy of the legal framework of domestic violence especially during times of the pandemic situation. In this paper, the authors has analyzed measures that the government failed to take during the lockdown in context to Domestic violence act, 2005 which leads to worsen this situation even more . Various catalysts that surged domestic violence cases are researched and analyzed by the authors to better understand the situation and form recommendations and conclusions. Thus there is dire need to make certain changes in institutional mechanisms which can make it more functional and accessible to women. This study is purely doctrinal which involves the study of Journals, articles, case studies and surveys respectively. The Authors try to analyze the reasons for increased reported cases as well as possibility of many unreported cases through primary and secondary sources of data available. This paper tries to go beyond to analyze domestic laws and legislations to find reasons and steps that should be taken in hardship times like COVID to help women to fight with this domestic violence.

KEYWORDS– COVID 19,Domestic violence, Efficacy, Insecurity, Lockdown.