AUTHOR=Markan Mridu , Dhingra Radhika , Segan Mehak , Dabla Vandana , Sagar Moni , Neogi Sharmila , Dey Shrija , Chakravarty Nayan 

TITLE=Gender-based violence programming in times of COVID-19: Challenges, strategies and recommendations

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Global Women's Health

VOLUME=Volume 3 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/global-womens-health/articles/10.3389/fgwh.2022.952688

DOI=10.3389/fgwh.2022.952688

ISSN=2673-5059

ABSTRACT=Gender Based Violence (GBV) remains the most challenging and threatening manifestations of gender inequality in the Indian society.  The outbreak of COVID 19 in India increased the risk of exposure to GBV, often compared to ‘shadow pandemic’. Girls suffered disproportionally compared to boys during the pandemic -from being pulled out of schools, facing movement restrictions, being more susceptible to forced marriage and household violence. Pre-existing gender inequalities and regressive gender norms along with economic instability also contributed towards creating a milieu for violence to thrive.
Additionally, the pandemic also challenged GBV service provision and program implementation at community level.  To meet the increasing needs of women and girls during the crisis, national and local civil society organizations attempted to adapt GBV programming and promote innovative approaches to tackle GBV. 
The secondary review provide insight on the GBV impact due to COVID-19 pandemic, and provides an overview on various challenges at the level of individual, community, institution and policy. The literature review also throw light on the most common manifestations of GBV while implementing gender sensitive interventions, strategies adopted to combat GBV in private, public and cyber space along with identifying regressive gender norms and stereotypes which fuel GBV. Deep rooted patriarchy, sexism, power inequalities and discriminatory mindset in society emerged as common challenges across individual, community, institutional and policy level. The new emerging forms on GBV: Dating violence, school based GBV, Cyber Violence etc. are also reviewed. The need to focus on engaging men and boys in violence prevention as critical allies is also reviewed. Furthermore, the article describes various strategies and actionable recommendations to address the issue applicable to humanitarian actors, GBV program implementers, donors and government.