Reaching out to the Survivors of Domestic Violence
A counsellor sharing smile with a survivor at 'Shaheen', NGO in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, supported by Oxfam for its programme violence against women.
Credit: Anubhav Das/Oxfam India
Like thousands of couples across the country who have arranged marriages, Leelavathi and Nagaraju Kumar got married on April 28, 1999. Leelavathi's parents gave around Rs 100,000 to Nagaraju's family as dowry. Everything was rosy for the first six months but immediately thereafter the behavior of Nagaraju's family members towards Leelavathi changed. They started harassing her physically and mentally. Leelavathi could not understand what was her fault. The physical violence reached a height when Nagaraju hit pregnant Leelavathi twice in her stomach resulting in the child getting aborted. She kept bearing all harassment until she became pregnant again. But this time she went to her parents' home for her delivery.
When she got back to her in-laws house with the new born baby girl, nothing had changed for her and the physical abuse continued. But when she got pregnant for the third time, her parents called a panchayat meeting with elders who reprimanded Nagaraju for his behavior. Nagaraju apologized and took Leelavathi home. After Leelavathi delivered a baby boy, the same story of abuse continued. Now it was too much for Leelavathi to take on and she, with the help of some friends, reached the support centre for women situated at the Central Crime Station in Hyderabad.
The counselors of the centre called both families and took stock of the situation. In the counseling Nagaraju accepted all allegations thrashed on him but did not feel sorry for his behaviour. Instead, he blamed Leelavathi for not performing her household duties properly. After two long sittings with Leelavathi and Nagaraju and a combined sitting with the couple, it was revealed that Nagaraju was an alcoholic. He beats his wife when he is drunk and rest of the times he behaves normally. The counsellor tried to make him understand about the ill effects of the alcohol. He confessed that he loves Leelavathi but he loses his control under alcohol. On the advice of the centre, he agreed for his treatment in a de-addiction centre. After he got treated, he promised to take care of his family and now they are living happily.
This is just one among the hundred cases that come everyday to the centre and get resolved through counseling and understanding without any police intervention. The issue of violence against women cuts across caste and class and finds its base in the social system, customs and traditions and the lack of effective laws and their implementation.
In Andhra Pradesh official crime statistics reveal that 50 percent cases of the crime against women are related to domestic violence (dowry death, dowry murder, dowry related harassment, cruelty and bigamy). In a society where wife beating and mental cruelty is considered a norm, domestic violence is much higher than the reported cases.
"Police is one of the primary institutions women approach while facing violence. When a women who is facing domestic violence approaches the police, their demands are multifold. Besides legal help, they need psychological, medical and emotional support. At times they need child care support and recuperation in a short stay home. Police as an institution is not geared to respond to these needs. That is why a collaborative role between the Police and the civil society is needed", says Girija Devi, Programme Officer, Gender, Oxfam India, Hyderabad.
Support Centre for Women within police stations has come up as one of the strategic responses to address the needs of women and children who have been the survivors of domestic violence. Oxfam along with its partner, Society for Women Awareness and Rural Development (SWARD) began this initiative 5 years ago in the central crime station premises. Later four other such support centres were established in another part of Hyderabad, Warangal, Karimnagar and Anantapur. These Support Centres are aimed at providing a multi-pron.ged support required for survivors and complainants of violence, to prevent and counter crime against women and engage with the youth, families and communities on the issue of violence against women.Oxfam India has similar initiatives in partnership with local organizations in Orissa, UP, Rajasthan and Gujarat
The counsellor of the support centre, Sunitha trained from the Tata Institute for Social Sciences (TISS) says, "counselling definitely helps the survivors and the accused in many ways. A lot of times, the violence stops after counselling because the accused generally is unaware that violence is a crime and there are stringent procedures in law for committing violence against women. Another challenge is that during counselling, people agree to certain things but don't adhere to that later. To ensure appropriate action, we need to do regular follow ups with survivors and their families", she added.
"The support Centre has been able to unburden cases from the police. In almost 50 percent of the cases, the trauma can be mitigated through good counselling. Urban problems are different. They need more counseling than criminal interventions. Police is good in dealing with cases after they are filed but lack the skill to counsel women facing violence to sort out things out of the police station", says IPS, Praveen Singh who is DIG, Andhra Pradesh Police Academy. Praveen Singh was instrumental in setting up the support centre in Central Police Station, Hyderabad, five years back.
"Police station has a very claustrophobic environment where one cannot engage in a supportive and healthy conversation. Violence survivors need comfortable physical space where they can come out of their problems and it is possible at support centres. The State Home Minister is very supportive of the idea and wants to initiate such centre across the whole state", added Singh.
The data in the following table clearly indicates that over 40 percent of the cases registered were solved at the support centre:
Year | Total Registered cases | Rejoined Completely | Compliant registers | Divorce | Domestic Violence cases registered | Others |
2005 | 137 | 56 | 44 | 32 | 5 | 0 |
2006 | 154 | 71 | 54 | 60 | 6 | 7 |
2007 | 253 | 89 | 74 | 37 | 33 | 20 |
2008 | 325 | 158 | 79 | 41 | 29 | 18 |
2009 | 377 | 223 | 81 | 21 | 33 | 19 |