Domestic Violence Cases Record Drop After Rise During Pandemic Years, Says NCW Chief

The number of complaints of domestic violence recorded by the National Commission for Women that increased during the Covid years has witnessed a decline, according to the apex body’s Chairperson Rekha Sharma.

Responding to a question during a media briefing, Sharma said domestic violence cases increased during the Covid period and claimed that the trend was seen across the world.

“In domestic violence, in the two years when it was closed down, it (domestic violence cases) increased but now it has come down. During the Covid period, domestic violence had increased and it was a worldwide trend,” she said. According to National Commission for Women (NCW) data, in 2020 — when the lockdown was imposed — 5,304 complaints of domestic violence were recorded out of a total 23,722.

In 2019, the commission recorded 2,960 complaints of domestic violence out of 19,730. The number of domestic violence complaints was 6,633 out of the total 30,864 cases recorded in 2021.

Of the total 30,957 complaints recorded in 2022, 6,970 were related to domestic violence. In 2023, the NCW recorded 28,811 total complaints, 6,304 of which were related to domestic violence.