No.
Duration Segment Visual
1 15s Pre Intro Clips of Domestic
violence (articles/
news reports)
2 <10s Grasp intro Grasp intro
animation
3 30s Overview of domestic violence cases Graph animation
4 15 - 20s Conviction rates data Graph animation
5 10s But then… (modiji announcement) Video clip
6 10s Lockdown era Clips and articles of
lockdown (migrant
exodus, ppe
shortage, pm cares
(maybe?))
7 10s Increase in domestic violence during the Graph animation
lockdown, NCW data
8 30 Headlines and
Everything that the government announcements
has done so far
9 30s On the ground impact of measures announced NGO representative
from Bihar clip,
the functioning of
one-stop centers
How NCW but most
women don't have
cell phone access?
10 1min Legal aspect Sudipto byte
11 2-3s Rewind thingy (the root cause of domestic Vacuum effect
violence) (rewind video to first
clips of domestic
violence)
12 ?s NGO anecdote Sound byte
animation
13 30 Survivor not victim
14 2 min Nivedita explaining cause interspersed with Sound bytes, video
narration (question-answer format) Car example
animation
15 30s Types of domestic abuse other than physical Text animation
16 1min? conclusion/ something to think about: Before animation
we ask why women have to endure violence
we should ask why do men inflict it in the first
place.
1: Pre Intro
VO: in 2018, 1,03,272 cases of Domestic Violence were recorded according to the National
Crime Records Bureau. While specifically gruesome cases often pop up time and again, the
media discourse around domestic violence seldom addresses the root cause of this problem.
VO: Even after years of activism and awareness campaigns, the long and tireless struggle
against this widespread and relentless cycle of abuse still continues.
3: Overview of Domestic Violence in India
a. Domestic violence is one of the most predominant kinds of crimes against women
according to the NCRB.
b. While there has been a slight decrease in reported crimes between the all-time high
of 2014 and 2018,
c. it has been estimated that only 14% of women who have been domestically abused
ever sought help from a source while a staggering 76% never told anyone.
d. This would indicate that a lot of this systemic abuse is grossly underreported and
invisible.
e. According to the National Family Health Survey, one in three girls has faced domestic
abuse before the age of 16.
4: Conviction Rates
a. Of all the cases that do end up getting reported, the survivors of domestic violence
have to navigate a toxic and more often than not, unsympathetic(callous) legal
procedure.
b. As backlogs keep building, the conviction rates of these cases continue to fall, further
discouraging survivors of domestic abuse from speaking out.
c. What is the extent of these backlogs? At the end of 2015:
- 83% of Dowry death cases
- 99.9% abatement of suicide cases
-83% cruelty by husband and relatives cases
and
- 99.8% of cases under PWDVA cases
were pending. Many of these cases were backlogs from the previous year.
7: Domestic Violence in lockdown
a. With the onset of the lockdown, many women have been forced to spend more time
in close proximity to their abusers. This is clearly reflected in the marked increase in
domestic abuse complaints received by the National Commission for Women.
b. In the 68 day period between 25th March and 31st May, the NCW received 1,477
complaints. This exceeds the number of complaints received between March and
May in the past ten years.
c. There was a 100% increase in the number of cases recorded between the first week
and the last week of March 2020.
8: Measures that were taken by the Government
The World Health Organization has warned governments about the spike in domestic abuse
cases induced by the lockdown. The Delhi High Court as well as the governments of several
states have addressed the problem and have outlined measures to curb domestic violence.
Despite the provision of helplines their effectiveness is questionable…
A 2018 Harvard Report found that women, especially rural women have limited and often
conditional access to mobile phones.
14: Nivedita Byte (Senior Research Advisor at Centre for Budget and Policy Studies)
The words we use to discuss domestic violence often reflect our attitudes towards it. Media
and society associate the term “victim” when referring to women and domestic violence. But
they’re not victims; they are survivors because they have gone through the violence inflicted
upon them.
The idea of using the word victims comes down from the overuse of the victimology by the
police which is attached to the survivors.
Now the question arises: why does it happen? Societal norms are based on the deep-rooted
system of patriarchy. Women are not solely subjecting themselves to patriarchy, we all are.
We should not forget that the spectators are also equally responsible for holding up a system
where it is okay for a man to inflict violence upon a woman. Everywhere around us, violence
is normalized and we cannot blame women for accepting the violence.
These societal norms which surround us everywhere make this oppression invisible hence
making every member of the family responsible to an extent.
Now, there is one important question that we fail to ask. What makes men think that it is ok
to inflict violence on women?
Sound Byte (40:40-41:05): Why do men beat? What do you think gives them the right? What
makes them think I think it’s okay to beat my wife? That is not something some men
internalize and other men don’t, this is something all men internalize and all women
internalize.
Sound Byte (30:13-30:30): Imagine you are in a car. You are going at high speed and you
have a feeling that you may crash and you may die. Can you imagine the fear? That's what
women live with when they are living with their husbands.
The patriarchal society has conditioned us in such a way that we often don’t question what is
wrong and what is right,
In our society, it is not that easy for women to just jump out of the metaphorical car. For most
women, the stigma of choosing the self over the family is far greater than the abuse they
might face at home.
15: Types of Domestic Violence
VO: Domestic Violence is not just limited to physical violence. It may also include:
- Control
- Sexual Abuse
- Emotional Abuse & Intimidation
- Isolation
- Verbal Abuse and
- Economic Abuse.
With only a small fraction of such incidents being reported, many of these types of abuse
have been so normalized by our society that they are not even mentioned in the larger
discourse of domestic violence in India.
16: Conclusion
Alcoholism, Financial woes, Stress, Jealously, Passion, Love and now, the Lockdown. We
always want to explain away domestic violence using these petty excuses. Perhaps it's time
to ask:
Niveditha Byte: WHY DO MEN BEAT
