A Study on the Impact of Media on Gender Neutrality and Domestic Violence and the Legal Awareness

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to understand the status and perception of domestic violence with regards to the steep increase in the number of complaints received by the National Commission for Women (NCW) from 2019 which was the head start of lockdown. Latest report shows a drastic increase in the number of domestic violence in general especially during complete lockdown. This paper attempts to uncover the perception of people on the idea of what is domestic violence and gender equality and the legal awareness on the same. In India, with its diverse population, the lack of awareness, social pressure, indifference in ideas, and insufficient knowledge about gender equality–attitude–related to help-seeking lead to underreporting and negligence of domestic violence, which can propagate the cycle during the on-going crisis. This paper also substantiates the role of media exposure on awareness in the attitude of people towards identifying gender based domestic violence, and the literacy on legal consciousness through qualitative and quantitative methods such as a wide array survey and structured interviews.