Almost 80% more calls in 2020 to 1522, the public utility number against violence against women and stalking. Istat data, in the report Calls for help during the pandemic, confirm what the associations that defend women have been saying for months. Requests for help increased by 79.5% compared to 2019, both by phone and via chat (+ 71%).
The greatest number of contacts took place in the spring months and on 25 November, the international day against women’s violence.
There were peaks in April (+ 176.9% compared to the same month of 2019) and May (+ 182.2% compared to May 2019).
Requests for help during the pandemic: data from anti-violence centers, shelters and calls to 1522 by #Status and Department of Equal Opportunities #IstatPerilPaese https://t.co/iM6A14Zt4o pic.twitter.com/M6BpfTfks4
– State (@istat_it) May 17, 2021
Women report physical violence, in 47.9% of cases, but also, with a figure that exceeds 50%, psychological violence.
They increased, compared to the previous year, requests for help from very young girls up to 24 and women over 55, 23.2% in 2020 against 18.9% in 2019. A Vanity Fair Cristina Carelli di Cadmi, a home for abused women in Milan, had already told about this trend. “In Lombardy there has been an increase in requests from external age groups: young people aged 18 to 30 and over 75. There are those who have decided to leave after this period of great closeness to the perpetrator and the common concern is the to put children in difficulty and the fear of economic precariousness, as well as threats ».
The period is even more of crisis for women who need to rebuild their future, to get back on their feet independently. Job opportunities are limited, training opportunities have a thousand constraintsthe. The legal aspect has slowed down. Social work struggles. And we remain closed in the house. This is where most of the violence due to causes related to the pandemic was reported: forced cohabitation, the loss of work by the perpetrator or the woman. Violence by family members has increased, 18.5% in 2020 against 12.6% in 2019.
During the first 5 months of 2020, 20,525 women turned to anti-violence centers. Most of the reception cases were in the North East, 108, and in the Center, 95. The numbers in the South have always been lower. However, the increase is significant: + 41.5% of women welcomed in the Islands, + 21.1% in the South, + 5.4% in the Center and + 5.2% in the North-East. The regions with the highest number of reports are Lazio, Veneto, Sicily, Sardinia and Lombardy.
“The ISTAT data confirm the survey that DiRe had made in the anti-violence centers belonging to the network, which reported, in the months of March and April 2020, an increase of 71 per cent of women followed by operators compared to 2019»Said Antonella Veltri, president of DiRe – Women in the network against violence, 82 women’s organizations that manage over a hundred anti-violence centers throughout Italy.
The centers of the DiRe network never closed during the pandemic. Even when not physically accessible, they have developed other modes of support: online, on the phone, via chat, email, taking particular care in ensuring the safety of the interviews, identifying ways that did not put women at risk and ensuring anonymity. “We also find confirmation in the data on the shelter houses”, explains Veltri, “where only a third of the prefectures have taken steps to find alternative accommodation to carry out the quarantine”.
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