By Aman Chhabra | Project Leader
Dear Donor,
Hope you and your family are safe and healthy !!
A U.N. report has prediceted that the pandemic could lead to 13 million extra child marriages in the next decade.The biggest side-effect of Early Marriage is Domestic Violence. Fight against Domestic Violence has been one of our 4 main issues from our inception in 1999. In the last 3 months, post lockdown, our school programmes are not happening as schools are shut but we have made sure that our work to fight Domestic Violence has increased.
As we stay home to stay safe, a lot of women are facing a Silent Pandemic at home.
With the Covid19 lockdown in effect, people across the globe have found their lives upended. And this is especially true for women and girls, who have found that their lives are being affected most of all.
This pandemic has hit those among us who are the most vulnerable: domestic workers, health workers, daily wagers. And many, many of those are women.
Women who will be losing jobs and incomes in large numbers.
Women who are juggling jobs and increased household work as the care of the entire family falls on their shoulders.
Women who have to take care of homes and jobs and children without so much as an expectation of getting help.
If that sounds bad, it doesn’t end there.
Under all of this, there has been one serious blindspot: the increasing reports of domestic violence cases in households.
In March 2020, the National Commission For Women in India stated that domestic violence reports have more than doubled ever since the lockdown began. There have been reports of increase in Domestic Violence worldwide also.
And this when even before the Covid19 pandemic, domestic violence was a serious concern in India. In fact:
“1 in 3 women in India suffer sexual and physical violence at home.”
(Source: National Family Health Survey-4 , 2015-16)
So imagine this: A situation where there are already women living in abusive households and who now, in the lockdown, are being forced to live twenty-four hours in a day under the same roofs as their abusers.
That is exactly what is happening right now.
And not all women can report. There are unheard voices out there, women who are trapped and unable to report what is happening to them.
This is violence.
Breakthrough’s Work On Domestic Violence
Domestic violence is not a problem that will vanish once this pandemic goes away. It’s a symptom of a larger problem which this crisis has just worsened.
We know this, because we’ve been working on this for over 2 decades.
In 2008, Breakthrough launched "Ring the Bell- Bell Bajao’ – a campaign asking men and boys to take a stand against domestic violence.
And to date, we have trained as many as 100,000 people on gender, sexuality and human rights issues and over a million men have signed the pledge against domestic violence.
So trust us when we say this: We can’t do this without you.
Today, Breakthrough continues to work on domestic violence even in the middle of the lockdown. We are
This all work is happening because of support of DONORS like you. In our fight against Domestic Violence, we need your support more than EVER !
With Hope and Gratitude,
Aman Chhabra.
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