Budiarti Utami Putri, Jakarta – The National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) revealed that cases of violence against women increased by 6 percent in 2019, amounting to 431,471 cases from 406,178 cases in 2018.

Komnas commissioner Marians Amiruddin said the data continued to jump over the past decade. Over the past 12 years, cases of violence against women skyrocketed by eight folds or 792 percent.

"This can be interpreted that in the real situation, Indonesian women are far from having a safe life," said Mariana during the release event of the Komnas Perempuan Annual Notes 2020 at Mercure Hotel, Cikini, Central Jakarta, Friday, Feb. 6.

Komnas Perempuan also recorded a significant hike in complaints related to cybercrime by 300 percent or at 281 cases from last year's 97 cases. "Most of the cases are in the form of threat and intimidation towards victims about pornographic photos and videos of the victims," Mariana added.

Besides, cases of sexual violence against women with disabilities also saw a hike as well by 47 percent. "Most of the perpetrators were not identified," Another Komnas commissioner, Bahrul Fuad, added.

Of the 3,062 cases that occurred in the public, 58 percent were sexual violence; sexual abuse (531 cases), rape (715 cases), sexual harassment (520 cases), sexual intercourse (176 cases), and the rest are attempted rape and intercourse cases.

Marians said that from all 2019 violence data, 14,719 cases were handled by 239 Komnas Perempuan partner institutions located across 33 provinces, 421,752 cases were from cases handled by Religious Courts, and 1,277 cases were recorded based on public complaint reported directly to Komnas Perempuan.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1316355/violence-against-women-sees-8-fold-hike-in-past-decade