The general perception about the virus known as COVID-19 is that it attacks the body only but we often forget that its effects go much deeper than that. Since the outbreak of the virus, most of the countries of the world have gone down on lockdown which means that there is quarantine everywhere. People are forced to stay at home whether they want to or not. There are many whose only refuge was escaping home and the outside world but when the lockdown started, it was taken away from them. Social distancing destroyed their social support systems and their lives came crashing down around them.

Hell behind closed doors: No rescue

In the province of Anhui, Eastern China, a woman named Lele has always had domestic issues as her relations with her husband was on tethers all the time. When the lockdown was enforced by the government and she was forced to spend every minute inside the house with the man, things started to get out of hand. One day, enraged, her husband beat her brutally whilst she had their daughter in her arms. He used a metal chair as his weapon and beat her with such force that one leg of the chair came off. He only stopped when Lele fell while still cradling their daughter. She documented the evidence later and said, “During the epidemic, we were unable to go outside, and our conflicts just grew bigger and bigger and more and more frequent,” she said. “Everything was exposed.”

Josie Serrata, a psychologist researched Hurricane Harvey to find out the rate of increase of domestic violence and child abuse due to a pandemic. “We found social factors that put people more at risk for violence are reduced access to resources, increased stress due to job loss or strained finances, and disconnection from social support systems,” Serrata says. “With this pandemic, we’re seeing similar things happen, which unfortunately leads to circumstances that can foster violence.”

Before the pandemic, the victims of domestic violence and other sorts of abuses had the option of fleeing the scene and seeking refuge in shelters, NGOs and other such organizations. Now, the quarantine has forced such help services to close down which means that these victims have nowhere to go and no support system and they are at the mercy of their abusers only. Nadine Kaslow is a professor of psychiatry that delved deep into the factors that may give rise to intimate partner violence. “The things people use in their safety plan are no longer available, which leaves survivors trapped in an escalating cycle of tension, power, and control,” Kaslow says.

The harsh reality in this time of crisis

In Spain, it was recorded that the first 2 weeks of lockdown saw 18% more call for help on the emergency numbers for victims of domestic help as compared to the previous month. A woman named Ana Bella set up a foundation to help victims of domestic violence commented, “We’ve been getting some very distressing calls, showing us clearly just how intense psychological, as well as physical mistreatment, can get when people are kept 24 hours a day together within a reduced space,”

As recent as 2^nd April 2020, France saw a 30% increase in the rate of domestic violence due to the quarantine. Christophe Castaner, the French interior has ordered the police force to be extra vigilant regarding domestic violence as he commented, “The risk increases due to confinement,” on French television.

Domestic abuse does not only involve violence but it also involves one partner enforcing control over the other and that can be done through manipulation, mind tactics or physical force. The emotional trauma only grows and since due to the social distancing, the victim can get no form of social support, the abuser is in complete power over the victim’s life and decisions of the household. Dr. Hester said. “If suddenly people have got to be at home,” she said, “that gives him an opportunity, suddenly, to call the shots around that. To say what she should be doing or shouldn’t.”

The truth is that this current pandemic is not only hard on the physical health of individuals everywhere but it is also breaking their homes and spirits. Victims of domestic abuse are at a higher risk than ever as they are forced in a lockdown with their abusers and have nowhere to run and no one to ask for help. Some major cracks are appearing in every household and they only seem to be deepening with time. The only solution to this is to get help from shelters and other such organizations, seek therapy and practice self-care as much as possible. Mankind as a species can only wait out this natural calamity and hope that there soon comes a vaccine that ends the nightmare for all of us.