News
Trend of men deserting homes, say activists but no spike in domestic violence during curfew
The National Committee on Women (NCW) has received complaints of men leaving families to fend for themselves but activists have not observed a particular spike in domestic in violence during the ongoing curfew.
“I have had to send rations to six houses just today,” Shiranthi Dissanayake, Chairperson of the National Committee on Women (NCW), said on Wednesday. “The Areas were Galle, Trincomalee, Kalutara, Divulapitiya.”
The Committee has taken numerous complaints of this nature and liaises with Divisional Secretaries and Ministers to provide these families with rations.
Complaints of domestic violence, meanwhile, are received by either the police, the counselling or legal division. While she had received four requests for legal advice, none pertained to domestic violence said Charmali de Soysa, NCW Legal Officer.
The Ministry of Women and Child Affairs has a hotline, 1938. Eight people now working from home answer those calls and direct urgent complaints to the police.
A Facebook post by the Nurse Pushpa Zoysa, National Coordinator Training of the National Hospital of Sri Lanka, earlier this work said there was a spike in the number of domestic violence cases arising from quarrels that broke out during the curfew. But statistics were not immediately available to back the claim.
Domestic violence cases had risen during curfews last year post the Easter Sunday bombings, a source from the Emergency Room at the Colombo South (Kalubowila) Teaching Hospital said. This was due to increased alcoholism. But the hospital staff had no information of such a spike during the ongoing curfew which has seen liquor sales also suspended.
Women in Need (WIN), a well-known NGO, is continuing to offer legal advice and counselling to victims and perpetrators. But several of the outstation hotlines advertised online were not reachable despite repeated attempts. The main hotline, however, responded and said that, by Wednesday, it had received around 40 complaints since the curfew began.
“That is the routine number of calls we generally get,” the operator said.
WIN feared that there could be an increase in domestic violence in the coming days. “Increased financial frustration and, sometimes, even withdrawal from liquor owing to the current ban may result in disagreements within already tense households, said Mariam Wadood, WIN Project Coordinator and Attorney-at-Law.