Asia Foundation Sounds Alarm on Surge in Gender Based Violence During Covid-19 Lockdowns

Australian National University’s Development Policy Centre blog co-publishes an analysis with The Asia Foundation on the increase of domestic violence due to shelter-in-place policies and what needs to be done to protect women’s safety.

Unintended consequences of policy responses are only ‘unintended’ when no-one could have foreseen them. The increase in domestic violence as a result of a ‘stay home’ policy was something most experts could have predicted. The policy settings therefore need urgent rethinking. Protecting citizens from the virus shouldn’t mean they die from domestic violence.