The Coali­tion against Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence ex­tends its deep­est con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly of Resh­ma Kan­chan. It is heart­break­ing that this young woman, moth­er of two has been mur­dered and in this bru­tal way. We call for ap­pro­pri­ate psy­choso­cial sup­port and oth­er sup­port in­ter­ven­tions for this fam­i­ly. In 2020, at least 20 women were killed by per­sons with whom they had re­la­tion­ships. Many, many more are suf­fer­ing in si­lence and with­out ad­e­quate pro­tec­tion or ac­cess to ser­vices.

As in the case of pre­vi­ous do­mes­tic mur­ders, the Coali­tion against Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence is re­peat­ing its call for a com­pre­hen­sive mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to do­mes­tic mur­ders.

In re­la­tion to Resh­ma Kan­chan, ac­cord­ing to tele­vi­sion in­ter­views with her moth­er, De­vi­ka Kan­chan, there was a his­to­ry of abuse which in­clud­ed an at­tack on Resh­ma in her moth­er’s yard. What were her cir­cum­stances and those of the per­pe­tra­tor? What do we know about the per­pe­tra­tor? Did Resh­ma have fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty sup­port? Did the per­pe­tra­tor have fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty sup­port? Had mul­ti­ple re­ports been made to the Po­lice as claimed by her moth­er, De­vi­ka Kan­chan in tele­vi­sion in­ter­views?

If re­ports were made in re­la­tion to do­mes­tic abuse against Resh­ma, what was the po­lice re­sponse? Was an ap­pli­ca­tion for a pro­tec­tion or­der con­sid­ered? Did her com­mu­ni­ty know that she was a vic­tim of abuse? What ac­tions were tak­en if any, to pro­tect Resh­ma by those around her? We re­peat our call for in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to do­mes­tic mur­ders that in­clude seek­ing an­swers to these ques­tions by the au­thor­i­ties. We be­lieve that these in­quiries will give us a bet­ter un­der­stand­ing of how to in­ter­vene to pre­vent these pre­ventable tragedies. Such in­quiries can al­so high­light ar­eas of im­prove­ment in the re­spons­es by com­mu­ni­ties and by state in­sti­tu­tions. They will con­tribute to strength­en­ing the cul­ture of ac­count­abil­i­ty of all of us to do more, to speak up, stand up and act to pro­tect and pre­vent do­mes­tic vi­o­lence.

These mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary in­ves­ti­ga­tions may be car­ried out by the TTPS Gen­der-based Vi­o­lence Unit, the Gen­der and Child Af­fairs Unit of the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, or the Vic­tim and Wit­ness Sup­port Unit with spe­cial­ist sup­port if nec­es­sary, from re­search in­sti­tu­tions such as The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies. The ag­gre­gat­ed da­ta col­lect­ed should be made avail­able to all stake­hold­ers to bet­ter in­form on­go­ing and fu­ture in­ter­ven­tions.

We can­not run away from the in­ter­sect­ing re­la­tion­ship of do­mes­tic mur­ders with gen­der in­equal­i­ty and harm­ful mas­culin­i­ties. The psy­choso­cial con­text in­clud­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic must al­so be con­sid­ered. We need gov­ern­ment and so­ci­etal re­sponse, which in­cludes school and out of school based in­ter­ven­tions, gen­der-sen­si­tive par­ent­ing pro­grammes, pro­grams en­gag­ing men in­clud­ing per­pe­tra­tor in­ter­ven­tions/bat­ter­er’s in­ter­ven­tion pro­grammes, and the in­te­gra­tion of gen­der analy­sis in­to teacher and po­lice ed­u­ca­tion pro­grammes, util­is­ing mul­ti­ple strate­gies in­clud­ing so­cial me­dia. These in­ter­ven­tions are more like­ly to be im­ple­ment­ed with the adop­tion of a well-re­sourced na­tion­al ac­tion plan to end gen­der-based vi­o­lence. We call up­on the gov­ern­ment to take ac­tion on the fi­nal­i­sa­tion of the na­tion­al ac­tion plan.

Do­mes­tic mur­ders must be stopped. We can stop do­mes­tic vi­o­lence. Let us learn and let us act.