Crimes Against Women In Public Places Witness A 50% Drop During Lockdown. This Is Proof That Men Need To Be Kept In Check

Crimes Against Women In Public Places Witness A 50% Drop During Lockdown. This Is Proof That Men Need To Be Kept In Check

It was six months back that lockdown was announced and we were hunkered down in our homes. Or was it five? Honestly, I don’t remember anymore. I don’t even keep a track of how many coronavirus cases have been recorded till now, something I used to do every minute when it all started. I am in the ‘wake me up when 2020 ends’ kinda zone right now. Because, you see, every day, there is something more disappointing and devastating than the previous day. If tomorrow someone tells me aliens have invaded our planet, believe me, I won’t be surprised.

But today I am not here to discuss some bad news. Turns out, something good did come out of this excruciatingly painful lockdown. It was reported that the rate of crime against women in Mumbai saw a substantial drop during the lockdown. Cases of rape, molestation and dowry harassment in Mumbai dropped by 50% in total in the period of March to July as compared to the same time period last year. Rape cases reduced from 393 in 2019 to 203 in the lockdown. Similarly, molestation cases saw a drop from 1,114 last year to 512. There was also a drop of 18% in molestation cases from June to July, the month when the lockdown started to lift. What’s really surprising though is that dowry harassment cases dropped as much as 78% in the months of lockdown, as compared to same months last year.

One of the reasons for such a dip in crimes is definitely the restriction of mobility. Since less people were on streets, public places and travelling in public transports, it explains the drop in molestation and rape cases to some extent. However, what about the sexual offences against women that have been happening behind the four walls of their own homes? Plus, domestic violence complaints have been spurted massively since the lockdown started which makes the drop in dowry harassment cases seem fishy. Women rights activist believe, or fear actually, that one reason of such drop could be the underreporting of cases by women.

Women who are locked up with their offenders and abusers at home do not report cases against them and thus it doesn’t show up in these crime stats. So, while lockdown has resulted in less crimes against women on streets and public places, there could actually be lot more cases of domestic abuse and sexual abuse against women in homes which are going unreported. There have been more than 10,000 cases of domestic violence in the lockdown but they never made it to the police stations.

This is because women cannot venture out in lockdown to file a complaint, neither they find the environment at home safe enough to do so. “The lockdown has taken away that enabling environment where disclosures can happen. Besides this, overall access to support systems has also not been conducive. Law enforcement officers have been busy fighting the pandemic on the frontline,” said Priti Patkar, human rights activist and co-founder of Mumbai based NGO.

As far as dowry harassment is concerned, it is not the rate of crimes that’s fallen but the rate of reporting of cases. I can’t believe that even in the year 2020 in laws are torturing women for dowry. Just a few days ago, a woman working in a private company in Gurugram hung herself after being harassed for insufficient dowry for a year after her marriage. Her husband and in-laws are booked on charges of dowry death. She didn’t file any complaint and believed death was a better option. So, on what grounds are we basing a 78% drop in dowry harassment?

Clearly, most of the women facing physical and mental harassment for dowry do not file an FIR and continue to suffer in silence because they are confined in their homes with their abusers. In an attempt to nullify this, the National Commission for Women (NCW) recently launched a 24/7 helpline for women facing mental harassment at home where they could reach out to experts via WhatsApp. The idea behind it was while women couldn’t go to the officials and file a complaint, they could seek help through WhatsApp and as a result, the number of complaints they received increased manifold.

Also Read: Smriti Irani Did Not Say There’s No Surge In Cases Of Domestic Violence. She Chose To Not Answer It At All. Why Though?

A 50% drop in crimes against women observed in Mumbai is surely a good thing. I mean, although it took a country-wide lockdown for our women to be safe, at least less women became victim of serious crimes like rape, molestation and kidnapping this year. However, we cannot ignore the fact that these numbers are just half the truth and cases of dowry harassment and domestic violence are, in fact, on the rise.

A lot of women are still suffering as you read this and they aren’t even able to report or seek help. We can’t let statistics like these blind us from the actual fact that the women are being the victim of cruelty, in their homes, if not on streets. And, the underreporting of cases by women is actually far worse and more worrying than crimes that are on the surface.

Also Read: NCW To Launch 24×7 Helpline For Women Facing Mental Abuse In Lockdown. Women’s Safety Needs To Be A Priority

Anjali Agarwal

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