As helplines related to domestic violence buzz across the country advertising agencies and corporates have stepped up efforts to bring attention to a frightening by-product of isolating at home - victims of domestic violence who are trapped with their abusers.

In the first week of the lockdown itself, one hotline received double their usual number of calls to report abuse. The National Commission for Women record shows up to 257 cases in the first week of April. This situation is now recognised as a ‘Shadow Pandemic’ by UN Women.

Predominantly women who are mistreated are now confined to homes with abusive partners whose physically violent tendencies are further inflamed by economic stressors.

In an initiative supported by TISS (Tata Institute of Social Sciences), NGO Akshara Centre teamed up with the Special Cell for Women and Children (a project of Maharashtra government’s Department of Women and Child Development) to create awareness about the current situation.

Its campaign #LockdownOnDomesticViolence urges citizens to fight and raise their voice against the brutality taking place in their houses.

The team has also set up priority measures to help domestic violence survivors. A detailed back-end plan along with compilation mobile numbers of 127 Special Cells, 358 protection officers and many other services are collated and shared with ‘100’ so that police and other service providers can work together.

Advertising company 82.5 Communications, a WPP company, partnered with NGO Aangan Trust in a campaign to protect victims of domestic abuse during the lockdown.

Community support

As survivors are trapped indoors with their abusers, making an emergency call may be impossible for many, the campaign says it is more important than ever for friends and neighbours to be vigilant.

Stating that the mask is a regular feature of our lives today, with everybody expected to wear one, the campaign urges individuals to go behind the mask and identify and help people who might be victims of abuse. Aangan Trust believes that community support is crucial at these times in addition to the efforts of the government and police.

Experts have warned that survivors of domestic abuse are at higher risk under the lcokdown, as self-isolation can potentially aggravate existing abusive behaviour towards women and children.

Another campaign by advertising agency ADK Fortune, a WPP company and part of Wunderman Thompson South Asia Group, highlighted this feature. ADK Fortune is a JV between Japanese advertising agency Asatsi and Fortune advertising, a sister concern of JWT India.

What strengthened the ad agency’s resolve and propelled them into immediate action was when a colleague narrated witnessing domestic violence in her neighbourhood.

Teaming up with director Pradeep Sarkar and NGO Vikalp Women’s Group, the trio decided to make a difference in the lives of countless domestic abuse survivors and reassure them that they are not alone in these troubled times.

‘Take a stand’

In the #LockdownOnDomesticViolence campaign, eminent personalities from the sports and entertainment industry including Anushka Sharma, Dia Mirza, Farhan Akhtar, Karan Johar, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Nandita Das, Rahul Bose, Sachin Tendulkar, Shabana Azmi, Shreyas Talpade, Sunil Shetty, Vidya Balan and Virat Kohli have come together asking women to take a stand against abusers and perpetrators of gender-based crimes.

Rahul Bose is associated with NGO Akshara Centre. “From my first-hand experiences of the 2004 Tsunami to the present Covid-19 crisis, it is a devastating fact that calamities, natural or man-made, hit women the hardest. During this lockdown period incidences of domestic violence against women have spiked alarmingly across not just the country, but the world,” he said.

The campaign seeks to shine a light for battered women across Maharashtra, offering them hope.