Background
Violence against women is like a never-ending long sea, but we are still unspecified of countless things in the ocean. Global and regional estimates that violence against women aged 15-49 is subject to physical violence or sexual violence by their intimate partner once in their lifetime. If we go into detail, the violence from lifetime partners ranges from western pacific with a 20% of violence rate, America with a 25% of violence rate, high-income countries and Europe with a 22% of violence rate, African religion and southeastern Asia religion with 33% of violence rate, Eastern Mediterranean religion with 31% of violence rate. Moreover, the global murders of women committed by intimate partners are nearly 38%. And if we go deep globally, 6% of women report having sexual assault faced by someone other than a partner. During cold-19, when all of us were busy making dishes and art and showing off our talents, some women were there who were fighting for life, protecting themselves from their partners they considered as lifetime cases or anything else. During covid, the increase in domestic violence was a significant problem. Women at home faced violence, and neither reported nor could they get out of the house due to the lockdown. If we go with the information filed or cases filed for the violence against women during covid, there was a 25% rise in plaints compared to the last year, according to the NCW Report. An increase in calls for domestic violence was seen in most countries. The resources, the efforts put to or were established to help women against violence, were diverted to covid help.
Crimes against women and the reasons behind them
There are many crimes against women, including The outrage of women’s modesty: (S.354), Domestic violence, Rape, and Cybercrime. If we see the leading cause of this type of violence was named as
- Lack of education: which is the most crucial point. Giving a child basic knowledge about behaviour and how to behave with the person is the most important. A child gets most of their learning from their childhood only or their growing surrounding. So education includes the book languages and the surrounding that we grow.
- Drunk man: this is the most common reason we can see in most houses in India nowadays. Drinking and coming home and hitting.
- Family issue: there are many cases where one person gets frustrated from family issues or influences for this type of outrage by other families, gossip about the intimate person and so on from the family, which can also cause it. It can also include family issues which can make a person create violence
Influence from the one doing this kind of behaviour in the family, having a lack of attention or respect, low self-worth, Experiencing abuse or neglect, community, and Access to weapons.
- Psychological problems: this is the most common type or form of expressing emotions, like frustration and anger, where a person mostly takes out all of his anger on the person or intimate person.
This type of behaviour can be seen in person when a person facing Poverty, Marital issues, Male controlling behaviour, Communication gap or miscommunication, Unemployment
The subsist laws for women:
- Constitution Of India: our constitution gives rights and equality and empowers women and children to make special provisions.
- The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961: this law protects women from dowry giving the violence created for dowry and totally against the system of dowry, which sometimes leads to the death of the women for these kinds of system in society and violence occurrence.
- Protection Of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005: this law protects women from domestic violence faced by an intimate person or the in-law’s family. This act protects a woman and gives her Access to knock on the court doors in these acts to raise her voice.
- The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace, 2013: This act prohibits the harassment faced by women during the work process or in their workplace. It can be by a colleague, the boss, or any office person. It gives the power to take action, complain against these kinds of behaviour, and protect women from this rising violence and crimes against women.
- Pre-Natal-Diagnosis Techniques (Regulation) Act, 1994: it is an Act sanctioned by the Parliament of India to end female foeticide and arrest the declining sex ratio in India.
- IT Act, 2000: this act has also protected women from cyber-attacks and crimes are modern ways of molestation, rape or crime. This act decides against many types of cyber-crimes against women, like bullying, morphing, hacking, fake profiles, and using up the names of others.
- POSCO Act, 2012: this act prevents sexual assault, harassment and pornography and provides a special court established to trial such crimes.
These types of cases need to be,
- carried on with strict laws.
- Fast track court (because time matters the most)
- Cyber laws, which are the most essential and happening thing nowadays due to the increasing violation of cyberspace, need to be taken seriously
- Proper jurisdiction
- Cases filed under IT ACT, 2000 must be acted immediately between 24hrs.
- Separate cell
- There should be separate provisions/Acts in addition to the IT act and IPC (RELATED TO women).
- Crime is also changed in this rapidly developing country with the change of generations and technology. So, laws must be more specified and modernised with the period. If not, they could be outdated, and people are always there to find a
Conclusion
It is not the fault of the pandemic, covid or others; the person’s behaviour defines who they are. Unemployment, stress, and other stuff is just an excuse for it. They need a fact that can limit their activities as an excuse, so as mentioned above, the laws need to be changed. It is not from the pandemic. It is a matter of cause and is going on and on and on. So, during this pandemic, we saw that the crimes against women could not be stopped even if we made them leave inside the house and not go out. Before the pandemic or after, the matter will be the same. It is not the one who did the crime suffer; it is the woman who is blamed every time for every little thing. These are the subsist of laws for women that the judicial system took the significant step to stop the violence against women. These acts play a considerable role in protecting women from violence. The one thing that women need to do is raise their voices, break their silence and act upon it at the time of crime rather than sitting in silence and tolerating thinking all is okay or everything will be okay. Nothing will become fine until and unless we raise our voices against the wrong.
Author(s) Name: Kirtika Sarangi (ICFAI Law School, Hyderabad)
