UNDERSTANDING THE EFFICACY OF TELECONSULTATION IN ASSUAGING ABUSE AGAINST INDIAN WOMEN DURING COVID-19 OUTBREAK

Abstract

Covid-19 pandemic has impacted societal well-being in different and interacting contexts and its long duree consequences on human health, both biological and psychological serves to be a key element in the public discourse. The “pandemic-lockdown” in the Indian context made the health and social faultlines existing in the country hypervisible making one question the ‘normal’ we were existing with, in the pre-Covid times. As the virus took its toll on the fragile health system, nearly crushing it, individual’s rights to a safe and dignified life got threatened in the private spaces. The psycho-social effects of the pandemic arising from the exploitation in the public/private domains can be recognized as infringements with severe and sustained negative repercussions on the vulnerable sections of society. While analysing the intersecting vulnerabilities on varied fronts, another intense predicament related to women and elderly abuse in the (un)safe homely space awaits address and redressal. The nature of stressors underlying such abuse reflects on a complex interplay among several factors at an individual, community, and collective levels. The use of digital platforms, social media sites, and teleconsultation in moments of unprecedented crisis suggests towards creating an alternative paradigm for addressing the psychosocial dimension of the pandemic that lies intertwined with the “underlying injustices and social conditions”. In the backdrop of the Covid context, this paper would analyse how teleconsultation and telepsychiatry became an apparent channel to ensure health based services and extend support and safety to those victims and survivors of family abuse who remain marginalized in the society on sexist and ageist constructs.