Staying home is <scp>NOT</scp> ‘staying safe’: A rapid 8‐day online survey on spousal violence against women during the <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 lockdown in India

With a recommendation to ‘Stay home, stay safe!,’ the nationwide lockdown in India began on the 25 March 2020 in a quest to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Following global trends,1 India too received increased complaints of domestic violence from across the country during this period.2 Here we report results of an online survey that was conducted to assess the prevalence and characteristics of spousal violence experienced by Indian women during the lockdown. This survey was conducted between 11 and 18 May 2020 (lockdown Phase 3 ended 17 May 2020). The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Raipur (Ref-997/IEC-AIIMSRPR/2020) and conformed to provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki; all the responders provided e-informed consent. Table S1 describes study specifics as per the CHERRIES Checklist.3 Of the 654 total responses received, 560 were used for analysis after screening for duplication, responses from single, separated/divorced women, and incongruent responses. Table 1 shows the demographic characteristics of the responders. While 12.9% (n = 13) of the positive responders reported to have made emergency hospital visits due to resultant injuries, 76.2% (n = 77) reported to be sad and depressed due to violence. Responders with thoughts of harming themselves (including suicidal thoughts) and of harming the perpetrator were 36.6% (n = 37) and 32.7% (n = 33), respectively. While 38.6% (n = 39) reported not to have ever resorted to any safety/rescue measure, neighbors (21.8%, n = 22), parents’ family (18.8%, n = 19), friends (12.9%, n = 13), and children (5.9%, n = 6) were commonly sought for safety. Police, local welfare groups/nongovernmental organizations, and helplines were sought only by 3% (n = 3) of positive responders. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, 22.8% (n = 23) of positive responders reported having difficulty in reaching their usual safety/rescue measure. For items and response choices of the CoViDoVi Questionnaire and the frequency of each response obtained in the survey, see Table S3. The responses we received reflect an increase in spousal violence since the COVID-19 lockdown in India. Predictably, restrictions (such as social isolation leading to more time spent in close contact) and disruption of jobs and livelihoods (which have been implicated as possible pathways for risk of violence5) were the foremost perceived reasons by the victims. Intriguingly, we show that one-fifth of the victims perceived the increased or new violence as being due to ‘working from home,’ thus suggesting that the ‘work from home experiment’6 not only has various social and economic implications, but also potential negative mental health outcomes. This negative outcome was also perceived to be due to an increase in the spouse's sharing of responsibilities of children and the elderly in the household. This finding reveals the widely prevalent gender inequality and conflict in work–family roles7 and its worsening due to the pandemic restrictions. As the inability to indulge in an addiction as before was perceived as another reason for increased or new violence by the victims in the present study, spousal violence might therefore be added to the list of problems that pose ethical dilemmas due to COVID-19-restrictions-led ‘forced’ abstinence from substances.8 The rates of physical and mental health consequences reported in our study are in accord with earlier reports.9 Conforming to the suggestion that disruption of social and protective networks is also a pathway of risk for violence against women,5 our study found one-quarter of the victims to have faced difficulty in reaching their usual safety/rescue measures due to the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Moreover, the findings that only a meager percentage of victims use police, local welfare groups/nongovernmental organizations, and helplines, and that about 40% of victims do not resort to any safety measure may relate to perceived dangers of attempting to access these means, especially when the lockdown has led to restricting oneself to constantly sharing the same space with the violent spouse. This calls for creative methods of making various means available to the victims. With greater levels of spousal violence, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have posed more problems to the still ‘unfinished’ agenda10 of addressing domestic violence against Indian women. The limitations of our study are shown in Table S4. We are thankful to Drs/Mr/Ms Alka Subramanyam, Debadatta Mohapatra, Deepa Sharma, Devvarta Kumar, Dhanesh Gupta, Dwarka Pershad, Gouravi, Priyaranjan Avinash, Rituparna Ghosh, Syeda Ruksheda, Sarmistha Chakrabarti, Shiv Kataria, Sonia Parial, Sucharita Mandal, Sujatha Sharma, Sukanto Sarkar, Sunayana Choudhury, Tanmaini Das, Thomas Kishore, and Vikram Ahuja for their contribution towards content validation of the questionnaire. The authors did not receive any financial support for this study and declare no conflict of interest. Table S1. Study methodology details as per the CHERRIES Checklist. Table S2. What means spousal violence? Definitions provided to study participants. Table S3. Items and response choices of the CoViDoVi Questionnaire and frequency of each response obtained in the survey. Table S4. Limitations of the study. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. 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