2,933 genuine calls were received by the Domestic Violence Helpline in the last 11 months.

Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Rosy Akbar says these calls were made from August 2020 to June 2021 and it worries the Ministry that 78 percent were from women.

Akbar says 54 percent of the calls are from the Central Division, 39 percent from the Western Division, five percent from the Northern Division

“Of the total calls, 38 percent were survivors and 62 percent were bystanders. Of the total calls, 52 percent was domestic violence-related, 72 percent of that were from survivors and 28 percent were bystanders.”

Akbar says the COVID-19 lockdown increased the chances of Domestic Violence and this was seen in the spike in calls from 139 in August 2020 to 817 calls in May 2021.

Calls received by the Helpline per year have increased over the past four fiscal years which recorded 952 calls in 2017, 927 in 2018 and 2332 calls in 2019/2020.