Paper abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a surge in domestic violence globally, resulting in soaring demand for domestic violence services, a phenomenon termed a ‘shadow pandemic’ or ‘double pandemic’. This study focused on how the pandemic impacted the prevalence of domestic violence and service provision to women experiencing domestic violence in Kazakhstan from the perspectives of social care professionals. According to the UN Women’s Fund, about 400 women in Kazakhstan die from domestic violence every year. In 2017, Kazakhstan decriminalised domestic violence on the assumption that this would decrease instances of domestic violence. However, domestic violence against women and children has increased annually, even though many crimes remain unreported. The study used a sequential mixed methods design involving a survey of 40 professionals from different social care organisations to gain a broader understanding of the issues and then conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 professionals to explore the survey findings in more detail. The analysis revealed that whereas the COVID-19 restrictions and lockdown suspended the work of many organisations in the country, the workload of the professionals increased significantly. Shelters were full and the hotline worked 24/7. Social workers reported that although the profiles of women seeking service varied, most victims were mothers and had socio-economic problems in families. However, the services were hard to access for victims from rural areas because crisis centres were located only in cities, and access to services was restricted by the block posts. Moreover, due to regulations of some crisis centres, shelters were not available for all victims–women who did not want to report to the police were not accepted by state-owned crisis centres. Participating professionals had to support domestic violence victims under tremendous challenges during the lockdown, including inadequate support from the government. Most professionals felt that the laws adopted to protect the rights of domestic violence victims were not effective, leaving them to fight for women victims themselves. The findings also show that the situation with domestic violence in Kazakhstan during the COVID-19 and beyond is aligned with the experiences reported in other contexts, but it was complicated by the existing concept of “Uyat” (translated from Kazakh as “shame”) and the place of women in the society. Even when the anti-epidemic measures were removed, the participants believed domestic violence instances were not decreasing. Given the high rate of domestic violence, they suggested the government should strengthen the work on domestic violence prevention.