What impact have Covid-19 pandemic era on violence against women in India - A retrospective comparative research study from January 2018 to December 2021

Background The safety of women is of significance and prime concern in India due to a huge female population, equity issues, gender issues, lack of positive deviance at community level, illiteracy, socio-economic factors, migration from rural to urban areas, inaccessibility to legal help and of course many more factors. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic had presented a challenge even for developed nations around the world regarding women’s protection in the ongoing pandemic era & especially in the lockdown period when it’s really difficult to go out and shout for help. Aim and Objectives The main aim of this research is to find out impact of SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 Pandemic on violence against women in India across different states and union territories from the beginning of pandemic i.e. January 2020. The objective is to find out that the covid-19 era has a positive or negative impact over violence against women. Data from various accredited sources were continuously collected, observed and analysed for this research study. Settings & Design The month-wise and state-wise data indicating number of complaints registered with National Commission for Women in India(NCW) under different categories are presented in different table 1, 2, 3, 4,5,6,7,8 will be discussed and displayed. The period of study is from January 2018 to 2021 December. This is a retrospective cross-sectional continuous observational qualitative and quantitative as well as comparative study. The two years of covid-19 pandemic i.e. 2020 and 2021 is compared two previous two years to know the impact of covid-19 on violence against women in India. Materials & Methodology The data is collected from accredited and reliable sources of National commission for women, India as well as various other sources listed in this research study. The data obtained is analysed by using Microsoft Office software. To reduce the length of article the detailed description and analysis is not provided in this version. Result Increase in violence against women in India is seen in this covid-19 pandemic era as compared to pre-pandemic years under observation. See Figure 1 and figure 2:- comparison of number of cases of domestic violence and various forms of violence to know the impact of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and lockdown situations in India. During the second year of pandemic i.e. 2021 the total numbers of Nature-Wise Report of the Complaints Received by NCW was 30865 which is an increase by 55.03 % compared to 2018 and 56.43 % as compared to 2019. Conclusion India should have various strategies to ensure safety of women and their mental health issues in such pandemic like situations. It seems that present laws and regulations are insufficient to give the desired results. The barriers of legal and protective system and delivery of helpful services etc. constraints should be rectified added with a proper dynamic plan to carry on usual women protection services even in pandemics and natural disasters. Keywords- SARS-CoV-2, pandemic, violence, women, lockdown, domestic abuse,