Domestic violence complaints peaked in red zones during lockdown, say researchers

Complaints of domestic violence and cyber crime against women were highest in the country's red zones during the lockdown, as compared to other zones in the country, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles. In their study published as a US National Bureau of Economic Research paper on June 21, Saravana Ravindran and Manisha Shah, professors of Public Policy at UCLA, compiled complaints registered with India’s National Commission for Women and mapped them on to districts in the red, orange and green zones — districts demarcated by the administration based on the Covid caseload — and cross-checked the findings with Google Mobility and Search trends. Examining this data, the researchers found that the average number of monthly domestic violence complaints per red zone district, which saw strict lockdown measures, was below 1.5 in March 2020, which went up to almost 2 in May 2020. While these complaints averaged below.1 per red zone district in February, it increased to.35 in May, while in green zones, the number increased from.03 to.06 during this period. The average number of rape and sexual assault complaints in each of the red zone districts moved from.5 in March to less than.1 in April to above.2 in May.