Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma are amongst the most adorable couple and the two don’t hesitate to speak up on any societal issues. The fierce couple has now shared an important video message on the danger of an increase in domestic violence in the midst of the nationwide lockdown imposed to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Apart from Virat Kohli and his wife Anushka Sharma, the video also features Indian opener Rohit Sharma and former India Women’s team captain Mithali Raj and a few Bollywood celebrities.
Virat Kohli shared the video on his social media platform and captioned it, “If you have been a victim, witness or a survivor of the domestic violence, please report.” The same video was also shared by Anushka Sharma on her social media platforms.
The video also features Bollywood stars like Farhan Akhtar, Karan Johar and Madhuri Dixit Nene amongst others.
In the video, all of them urge men and women both to stand up to the violence and to women to “break your silence” as they are has been a sharp rise in the cases of domestic violence cases since the lockdown has been imposed.
Not only did the prominent personalities urged the victims to speak up but also to the witnesses to report such cases concluding the message by saying, “Let’s put a lockdown on domestic violence.”
According to the latest data shared by the National Commission for Women, they received 239 complaints related to domestic violence between 22nd March and 16th April. On the other hand, they had only received 123 complaints from 27th February and 22nd March.
PM Narendra Modi imposed a nationwide lockdown on 24th March till 14th April which has further been extended to 3rd May to fight against the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
The Nation Commission Of Women chairperson Rekha Sharma said the sudden rise in the number of cases of domestic violence can be attributed to the lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus outbreak which has locked the victim and abuser together.
TO help the women in distress over 50 helpline numbers have been started across India during the on-going lockdown. While some of the helplines are active nationally, some are state-specific.