RIGHTS-INDIA: Battered Women Find Hope in Self-Help

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Bharat Dogra

JAIPUR, India, Sep 19 2003 (IPS) - For years, Sudha put up with beatings and extreme cruelty at the hands of her husband. Today she is a confident member and activist of the organisation that helped her find her feet.

‘’MSESK (the Hindi acronym for a group called Women’s Help and Security Centre) rescued me from utter hopelessness and not only gave meaning and direction to my life but I’ve also become involved in its work,” she said in an interview. The saviour of hundreds of women in this city, capital of western Rajasthan state and known for is feudal culture, the centre began two years ago and functions out of two rooms attached to a woman’s police station.

Few outsiders would suspect the existence of the MSESK, least of all the tourists who throng to this ‘Pink City’ to take in the ancient palaces and battlements that proclaim its past military glories.

But the centre has found itself quite busy over the years, because of a rising trend of violence against women. Says Kavita Srivastava, a social activist: " We have been shocked at the extent of violence as well as the levels of cruelty that have been used against women in this city.”

Although Jaipur has several women’s organisations, human right organisations and other voluntary groups that try to help distressed women, they have found their efforts hampered by two factors.

First, it is difficult to ensure proper and timely support from the police or the rest of the law and order apparatus, which tend to be influenced by feudal values.

Second, several organisations were not equipped to provide any support that the abused women need – including legal help, health care, counselling emotional support and economic rehabilitation.

"It is mainly to overcome these two problems that MSESK was started up", says Renuka Pamecha, a senior teacher and social activist who has been a leading force behind this effort.

On the one hand, MSESK seeks to provide multiple services to distressed women at one place. On the other, it also has a close collaboration with police, a relationship that Pamecha described as "partnership with autonomy".

Jaipur has two women’s police stations and the office of MSESK is attached to one of these in Gandhinagar locality.

As many as nine organisations concerned with women’s rights came together to form MSESK. In the course of its work, several other groups with diverse skills from mental health care to vocational training, child care and legal expertise became associated with it.

According to Srivastava, it is this coming together of many organisations that has enabled the centre to provide multiple types of care needed by women brutalised by domestic violence.

Last year, it helped 511 women victims of domestic violence – a figure that represents 21 percent of the total number of cases lodged with the police. In the remaining cases, solutions were worked out through negotiations, emotional support, economic rehabilitation and legal aid. The vast majority of cases were never reported to the authorities in the first place.

Some like Sudha suffer for years before seeking help, but the establishment of the MSESK is beginning to change things. ‘’Everyday I see more and more distressed women coming here and returning with new hope.”

It has been the centre’s policy to encourage a distressed woman to take her own decision on the course of action she wants to pursue. Essential information, including legal information, is provided to her so that she can make a wise choice, keeping in view her circumstances and needs.

Many distressed women require long-term help. Many face acute poverty, making the arrangement of economic rehabilitation a priority. MSESK has links with organisations which provide vocational training as well as interest-free loans.

Some women need short-stay homes, while others have children who need to be sent to the safety of properly managed children’s homes.

In several cases, MSESK finds it necessary to enter into a relationship of long-term care and trust with women who approached the centre initially for some immediate help. But this is a last recourse.

Veena was harassed and beaten repeatedly by her husband for nearly 13 years. Twice she come to her maternal home but was prevailed upon to go back to her husband – only to encounter cruelty once again.

Now she has left this relationship of pain and violence with the help of MSESK and is trying to build for herself an independent economic base by running a small shop assisted by her mother.

The Rajasthan government plans to open similar centres as MSESK in other cities that have women police stations.

As things stand today, MSESK works within serious resource constraints and its meagre staff of a few dedicated women is overstretched.

But for those it has helped, the centre’s ability to work with distressed women in partnership with the police has meant nothing less than new lives.