How Governments Are Responding To Sexual Abuse During This Pandemic?

The world has been caught off guard by the impending crisis of COVID-19, with its physical and mental impact affecting millions of people all around the world. However, there is no excuse for the ignorance of issues that bud from this pandemic indirectly. It is imperative that the world is prepared to respond to the increased risks towards the safety of women and children.

Violence against women and children is common to all countries and have severe consequences. While the reports during pandemics are usually limited, we are still equipped with enough proof to assume that factors like confinement, financial stress, isolation, and weak responses of the government can give rise to high levels of violence.

The increase in the number of calls to helplines, support services, police stations over the past month are pointing towards the worsening situation of Child Sexual Abuse in different parts of the world. In India, 92,000 calls were recorded on the Child Helpline Number ‘1098’ over a span of 11 days after the lock down started. This has led to activists and researchers reviewing past crises situations and developing policy actions for the same.

What exactly are the governments across the world doing to combat this violence?

The government has ensured an expansion in the number of helplines as well as given a push to information sharing. Information is being circulated widely through resources, social media groups, NGOs and word of mouth. Many NGOs are working towards spreading the importance of safe parenting during quarantine. Helplines and online support platforms are developing to set the base for discussions. Italy, being one of the highly affected countries, is preventing ‘an emergency within an emergency’ by advertising a helpline number for violence and stalking. Information channels are open 24*7 for people.

A number of countries have stressed on the importance of shelter and additional housing during quarantine. This safe accommodation will allow survivors to escape abusers for the time being. For example, as a part of the relief package, Canada has allocated $50 million to shelters and sexual assault centers. In Italy, an abuser must leave the home in situations of violence, rather than the victim. This is a temporary solution. However, it guarantees safety of the victims, who might find it a challenge to face the perpetrators who have access to their homes. 

The Indian Child Protection Fund was set up in January 2020 to fund NGOs that fight against exploitation of children. It has been observed that the consumption of child pornography has increased by 95% during the lock down. ICPF has allocated funding for a pan-India tracker which uses Artificial Intelligence to monitor hosting, viewing, downloading and sharing Child Sexual Abuse material and provide this information to government agencies.

What can the Indian Government do?

Child rights bodies recently wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office, asking the government to declare 1098 toll free and to make it a COVID-19 emergency outreach number for children or parents.

An alliance of six leading child development organizations (Child-fund India, Plan India, Save the Children India, SOS Children’s Villages of India, Terre des hommes and World Vision India)  have requested the government to provide uninterrupted access to critical services for the most vulnerable children and their families. 

To combat the long-term as well as immediate impact of this crisis, the government should ensure that services like healthcare, nutrition, food, security, psychological help, protection against violence, social protection and child-sensitive cash transfer initiatives must be accessible on priority basis.

While the steps taken by different governments are commendable, many of them have still not committed the use of resources to combat this issue. Limited budgets have been allocated to address the violence against children and women in both high-income countries and developing countries like India. 

“For many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest- in their own homes.” As the UN Secretary-General calls for peace in homes around the world amidst the lock down, it is obvious that everyone has a part to play when it comes to preventing such violence, especially in these unprecedented times.

The article has been written by our Amol - Ankita Natarajan

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