“With the COVID-19 taking a toll on human lives,
Humans have turned into beasts, devouring violence as the weapon to end boredom.”
While growing up, I’d always been learning to “love my neighbor as I love myself”. Funny, isn’t it? This whole statement seems like a sugarcoating on the bitterness of the world.
It’s quite evident to see that the world right now, is battling with a deadly virus. But, some families are battling with their inner demons. Whilst in the lockdown, people are slowly getting exasperated of the monotonous lifestyle, out of frustration from the facts of less salary, social life and a balanced diet.
But the aftermath of this frustration is gory. I remember listening to “Cherry Wine” by Hozier and murmuring the lyrics, I heard the pain in it, the pain of abuse, hurting and harassment. People are getting addicted to content that promotes illegal physicality.
The world, post COVID-19, would definitely look like one from those Steven Spielberg movies. The sounds of utensils being thrown at the spouses, mostly the female counterparts are becoming victims of this huge massive social trouble.
There have been numerous petitions against domestic violence in courts. Taapsee Pannu even slayed a role in “Thappad”, with the role of a woman, who was physically abused by her husband in front of a hall, full of a vibrant mass. It’s no special news that women are becoming increasingly prone to these kinds of torture. In fact, the records are breaking and India is holding a position in that record.
Taking into analysis, let us delve into the severity of verbal abuse. “Words cut deeper than knives”. I wonder who even said that. Had they been alive today, they’d be weeping out of the truth in their words. They’d being a celebrated poet like Rupi Kaur or Nikita Gill.
When I was growing up, I had a terrible experience of hearing my neighbours fighting. I was quite scared after hearing they were talking to each other. It’s actually a terrible truth that women are told to hide these scars of domestic violence and move on. After all, mental health is another synonym for euphoria, in our stigma-torn society.
The lockdown gave way for this violence to persist even more. Meanwhile, lives are perishing from the grief of less monetary support, the other half of the population for their savings and the distinct areas with the female population, facing the storm of their husbands threatening to throw them and the children out of the house. Verbal abuse is depicted as “mere”, “forget it” and “women are born to sacrifice to the male dominance”.
Tremendous pressure of abuse and harassment has been the silent killer of millions of innocent ladies and women, who never got to fly higher than the eagle and chase the clouds. The patriarchy wouldn’t let that happen.
There are screams and fights and physical abuse, along with a heavy-flown vernacular language usage. This too, has a serious impact on the growing children of the household, especially on the boys – since they start imitating the ill traits of their fathers and uncles. Some children have a deprived childhood, where they hallucinate the echoes of their parents quarrelling or fighting.
Although, this is not the first time that Domestic Violence has come into force, yet, I’d still emphasize on the very fact that verbal abuse is far hazardous and strenuous for a person, regardless of their background, to handle. But what if this social devil keeps on circulating even if the lockdown is taken over? Well, that’s another matter to take into consideration, since most of us, are aware of the “dowry system” too. But it’s still prevelant.
There’s only one weapon to overcome this societal pressure – education.
But again, would online education lend it’s hand in teaching the children, the basics of adversities and how to deal with them in our day to day life? Or would they have be victims of a dark demon approaching their threshold?
