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While most government have looked at Covid 19 lockdowns as the best viable solution to solve the spread of the pandemic, the other side of the same measure has been understated with many girls and woman suffering in silence.
The Victim Friendly Unit with the Zimbabwe Republic Police unit has reported surge in domestic violence by more than 300 percent, largely induced by hard lockdowns, where in most unfortunate cases, couples are failing to spend the better times of the day in a mutually agreeable environment.
In a country with an already failing economy, serious unemployment and few means of production, economic stress induced to most households has led to much more pressure mounting into families, and woman have been at the receiving end of this brunt.
Addressing journalists during an online training organised by the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe media training on reporting minority rights, organised in partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Virginia Muwanigwa, the Zimbabwe Gender Commission chief executive officer noted the point with great concern.
Woman in an abusive relationship have suffered more of the psychological, physical and economic pressure induced by these lockdowns.
While lockdowns directly do not cause any form of abuse to woman, the setup environments in Zimbabwe have forced vulnerable woman into much greater than the Covid pandemic itself.
Reports of physical abuse, domestic violence and divorces have spiked in Zimbabwe, and the major cause has been a failing economy causing social dysfunctionality amongst millions.
Those who are not divorcing and hanging on, the physical abuse and mental torture has been perpetrated against them continuously and in most cases, Zimbabwean woman are not even going put to report these cases.
This is because our culture has generally prohibited confrontational means to solve domestic issues, causing mush more pain and suffering .
This is a basic human right violation and not much is being done at legislative role to make sure that woman are protected and enough information is disseminated to help salvage the situation.
The case even gets worse with those bread winners who have always been in the informal sector which to a major extent gets heavily affected by these lock downs, where they are not only left to deal with the long uncomfortable times at home, but without any means of productions.
Empowering many woman as skilled or semi skilled players is recommended as one of the major forms to reduce domestic disputes.
“When a woman is also playing her role to bring food on the table, there seem to be much respect given to her in the house than the same woman when she is not financially contributing anything” said a female contributor during a survey.
Equal employment opportunities is a major factor that can help solve the major economic stress in most households, where the female counterpart must be considered to be equally competent and serving of the same pay check.
Zimbabwe has a National Gender Policy that places strong emphasis on gender equality and equity and envisions a gender-just society in which men and women enjoy equity, and benefit as equal partners in the development of the country.
Zimbabwe’s Constitution Section 17 provides for the promotion of full gender balance in Zimbabwean society with the deliberate efforts to ensure the full participation of women in all spheres on the basis of equality with men.
The same constitution on Section 25 provides for the protection of the family, and prevention of domestic violence.
These are not just moral but legal values which must be upheld, as they are enshrined in the national constitution of the land.
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