Abstract

Earlier studies have shown that incidents of gender based violence (GBV) against women have increased in the face of the pandemic. GBV is an all pervasive issue. In India, crime against women is a serious issue. Many ranking agencies have declared India as the most dangerous country for women due to the prevalence of GBV. The aim of this research was to investigate incidents of GBV when lockdown was declared during COVID-19 pandemic in India. This study identified the factors involved in GBV against women during COVID-19 through thematic analysis. For this study incidents of GBV were taken from different parts of India during lockdown. The result shows that the lockdown situation had reinforced instances of GBV against females. It also shows that males were carrying out these crimes during lockdown due to having no fear of being caught, unemployment, stress and boredom. Frustration could have been a major reason leading to gender based crimes. Another significant reason that resulted in gender based crimes during lockdown period during the pandemic was migration.

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