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Further Reading:
Violence Against Women
by Coomaraswamy, Radhika and Kois, Lisa M.
WOMEN AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW: VOLUME 1
Askin and Koenig (eds.), 177-217 (New York: Transnational Publishers Inc., 1999)
This article sets out the international legal framework and governing
issues on violence against women. It also describes the various
manifestations of violence against women and the legal responses to such
violence. The authors discuss factual aspects of violence against women
particularly within the family context. The authors also include a
section on violence against women in the community that deals with rape
and sexual violence, sexual harassment, trafficking in women and
violence against migrant women. Discussions on custodial violence
against women, rape of women in situations of armed conflict, violence
against women refugees and internally displaced women are contained
within a section on violence perpetrated or condoned by the state.
http://www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/
diana/violence/articles.htm
Telling the Story of Women and War in Uganda
Ruth Ojiambo Ochieng is showing the world what happens to women in armed conflict in Uganda.
http://www.unifem.undp.org/
trustfund/uganda.html
Violence against Women in India: Evidence from Rural Gujarat
by Leela Visaria
Gujarat Institute of Development Studies
An article in Domestic Violence in India: A Summary Report of Three
Studies.
International Center for Research on Women: Washington, DC, September,
1999.
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/
Organizations/healthnet/SAsia/
forums/dv/articles/vwindia.html
Realizing Human Rights for Women
by O'Hare, Ursula, A.
21(3) HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY, 364-402 (1999)
The author reviews the developments in the prohibition of violence
against women in international human rights law. She stresses the
importance of recognizing violence against women as a human right rather
than as a "private" individual or family matter. The precedent set in
the area of violence against women may give other groups the framework
within which to challenge the boundaries of human rights
law. The author also observes that the feminist debate around violence
shows that human rights are not static and that women's voices have much
to contribute to the future evolution of human rights. Finally, she
concludes that the growing prohibition against domestic violence in
international human rights law will encourage a sense of ownership of
those rights by moving the debate from expressions of moral outrage into
the framework of enforceable legal rights.
http://www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/
diana/violence/articles.htm
Go to the Changemakers Library for more selected Internet resources about stopping violence against women
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Multi-Dimensionality at Its Best
While many organizations in India are committed to combating violence against women, Swayam stands apart in one crucial respect. Most have responded to the problem by customizing their individual intervention to fit their own agenda of priorities within the larger mission of ensuring agency and wellbeing for women.
The result is a map of services that is crowded but fragmented. For the woman who accesses this assistance, it means running back and forth between different offices, trying to coordinate the range of services that she desperately needs, at a point in her life when she is least equipped to do so.
In contrast, what Swayam provides is turnkey services. With comprehensiveness as its mantra, Swayam's methodology offers micro-level intervention that provides an entire range of direct services to the women themselves, addressing their emotional and practical needs. This, in turn, is backed by a broadbased, many-faceted program to sensitize the community as a whole to the problem of violence against women.
If all-inclusiveness rules strategy, self-empowerment is the goal and guiding philosophy. Swayam, explains founder Anuradha Kapoor, means "oneself." The title reflects the strong emphasis that the organization places on helping women survivors of violence to become self-reliant individuals with the will and the agency to determine the course of their lives.
Anuradha Kapoor participating in the World March 2000, held in New York City on October 17, 2000, when women from all over the world marched to protest poverty and violence
"By providing her with a holistic set of services and by simultaneously working actively in bringing about attitudinal changes in the society which is her environment, we function as facilitators in this process of empowerment," stresses Kapoor.
The importance Swayam attaches to women taking charge of their lives is brought to me sharply when I use the word "victim" for these women. Kapoor cuts me off with a smile and a quick response: "We don't regard them as victims; we prefer to see them as survivors who have fought and will keep fighting till they win."
The seeds of Swayam were planted in Kapoor's childhood when she became aware that even in her privileged background, subtle distinctions were made between male and female family members, with a separate code of conduct for each. Later, work with a publishing company in Calcutta exposed her to a wide range of writing. She also got to interact with people in the performing arts and academia, which opened her mind to heady new ideas.
But she was growing restless and wanted to focus her life.
Kapoor began volunteering, first with an organization working with street children and then with a nonprofit where she assisted women in short-stay homes. Hands-on experience of working with women – including counseling, researching and formulating income-generating schemes – was complemented with an insight into the support system that existed for them. She witnessed the terrible crimes that were committed against women and saw how the systems that were there to protect and assist them, failed them again and again, so often because of the lack of a coordinating agency.
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How Rampant is Domestic Violence in India?
90,000 women all over India, aged 15-49, were interviewed and the results of the survey are chilling
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Women who justified beating: 56%
Rural: 60%
Urban 47%
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The higher the education level, the less likelihood of the woman justifying wife beating:
Among illiterate women, 62% justified beating
Among those who had completed high school, 37%
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Women above the age of 15 whose husbands had beaten them at some point or the other:
Rural: 23%
Urban: 17%
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The lower the standard of living, the higher the chance of the woman being beaten:
Lowest socio-economic level: 29%
Well-off sections of society: 10%
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Reasons for the rod:
Neglecting home: 40%
Goes out without permission: 37%
Disrespect to in-laws: 34%
Unfaithful: 33%
Bad cook: 25%
Money: 7%
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The longer the couple has been married, the higher the chance of domestic violence:
Married for less than five years: 14%
Married for more than five years: 23%
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Source: National Family Health Survey 1998-1999 (NFH-2)
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Gradually, the concept of Swayam as a one-stop center took shape in Kapoor's mind. She also understood that concerted, continuous effort was the route to changing existing attitudes toward violence against women.
There is an air of determination about her quiet demeanor that speaks clearly of a woman who gets things done. And so, in 1995, Swayam was registered as a Charitable Trust and the Support Centre was set up the following year. While the media were activated to let people know about its existence, it was mainly through word-of-mouth publicity that Swayam's client base grew.
Over the next two years, as demand for their services spiraled, Swayam hired more staff and mobilized volunteers to keep pace with this demand. Today, the organization has eight full-time staff, two consultants and two lawyers, apart from a pool of doctors, lawyers and volunteers who are on call. In terms of cases handled, Swayam has made a quantum leap of almost 500 percent from its first year of operation.
A Range of Services Under One Roof
The largest section of Swayam's clients (about 49 percent) come from lower middle class backgrounds, where the men are typically small-time traders, shopkeepers, clerks or office peons. Typically too, the women have less than high-school education and no independent income.
Some 36 percent belong to the poorest sections of society – women with little or no education, who subsist on a day-to-day basis as domestic help or casual construction labor. Another 15 percent are from the richer sections of society – women who are usually graduates, even qualified professionals, but who are trapped in a prison of violence through marriage, through work or abuse dating back to childhood.
A buzz of activity typifies the Swayam Support Centre. But good vibes and a sense of peace infect those who cross the threshold. This ambience and setting is a direct contrast to the horror stories that are voiced here day after day, and that, says Kapoor, is precisely the point: "This is a place where women must feel totally comfortable in and know that they can talk about their problems without being judged."
When a client contacts Swayam, the first step is a counseling session to assess her immediate needs. Conducted by a trained counselor, this exercise determines the high-priority needs of the moment. These could range from counseling for trauma management, medical aid, police assistance, legal advice, shelter, help for her children or a job. Usually, it is a combination of all these.
A consultant psychologist steps in when psychiatric counseling is required. Medical attention is provided through referrals to doctors and government hospitals. A panel of lawyers provides free legal consultation.
While Swayam does not have its own shelter, it assists women and children in finding space in the city's shelters and it ensures that children who need to be admitted to schools or hostels, are granted admission. The need for a regular income is addressed through referrals to vocational training courses and job placement bureaus.
Signboard announcing a poster exhibition as part of Swayam's Fortnight Protesting Violence Against Women – an annual campaign during which the issue is highlighted through films, poster exhibitions, plays, debates, marches and presentations.
In almost all cases, Swayam staffers accompany the woman – be it to a hospital, the court or the police station – both to provide emotional support, and to ensure that due process is being followed. It is common for the police to refuse to register charges and hospitals fail to issue certificates to the women. This deprives them of vital records for building a strong case against their aggressor, while court personnel are frequently intimidating.
Swayam staff ensure that charges are filed, a medical certificate is issued, and that the woman is allowed to depose properly in court. Additionally, it provides financial assistance on need-based grounds for medicine and legal costs, training fees, short term costs for shelter, etc.
Clubbed under the heading of Direct Services, these activities are designed to address the immediate crisis faced by the woman. At every point, though, counselors lay out the options and their implications and it is the woman who must decide if and how to proceed and she gets unqualified support in this decision.
"The idea," explains a staff member "is to make her realize that by contacting Swayam she has taken a proactive role in asserting control over her life and we will nurture this through the entire process." In this way, clients experience a strong healthy feeling of self-determination and the return of a degree of control over their lives.
The emotional healing is reinforced in a number of other ways too. Kapoor leads me into a spacious, sunlit room with striking posters and paintings, colorful upholstery, and a TV tuned to an afternoon soap. The aroma of coffee wafts in from the adjoining kitchenette.
Two women are glued to the set, mugs of tea in hand. Another is browsing through a magazine, settled comfortably on a futon. This is Swayam's Drop-In Centre – a place that provides women with an essential space to get away from their destructive situations, and to create time that is exclusively for themselves – an unknown luxury for most of these women.
With Support, We Can Conquer All
A bonding between its clients is the central goal of Swayam's Support Group initiative. The Support Group facilitates meetings where women share experiences of abuse and trauma and realize they are not isolated. They draw emotional strength from each other and gradually begin to accept that they are not social aberrations, but share their situation with many others.
The Support Group is charged with organizing meetings and workshops at regular intervals. This "group" activity has resulted in two initiatives from the women themselves, and for Swayam these are emphatic successes of its mission.
The first is a Bengali magazine, Prayas ("effort"), which highlights the issue of violence against women through articles, poems and other writing. It has a legal section where women can write in for advice and another interactive section focusing on personal problems. Distributed by the women themselves within their circle of friends and acquaintances, and at stalls in Calcutta's book fairs, the magazine's readership is steadily growing. Just a casual glimpse at the letters to the editor powerfully illustrates that Prayas is succeeding in reaching out to those who need it.
The Support Group also resulted in Swayam's theater group, begun by a team of women for whom Swayam organized training by a professional theater company in Forum Theater – an audience-interactive theater form that uses of music, dance and dialogue to create public awareness and debate about critical social issues. The group usually performs in public spaces like parks and their skilled performances unequivocally demonstrate how their personal experiences of abuse have been transmuted into something powerful and positive. Swayam regularly involves the group in its awareness building campaigns, which are as much a public communication of Swayam's agenda as a reaffirmation of each actor's personal victory.
The Economics of Change
But, as Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen has pointed out, a woman's agency – her ability to actively change her own and others' circumstances – will remain severely restricted without economic empowerment.
Swayam is committed to this idea and the stress laid on its income generation program is a reflection of this mission. Here, once again, the organization's hallmark holistic approach is demonstrated. Whereas most income generation programs for women are limited to skills training and assistance with placement, Swayam's is a multi-pronged approach.
The income generation program includes psychological components. There are self-exploratory exercises to understand the importance of economic empowerment for women, role-playing sessions that develop life skills and orientation into the culture of work; with the practical inputs of individual SWOT analysis (of abilities and personality traits), referrals to vocational training and help with job placements.
Devasmita Sridhar, a consultant with Swayam, underscores the importance of this approach: "Most of our clients are women with limited education who have never worked outside their homes. It's essential that our career counseling not only looks at the practical aspects but simultaneously prepares the women psychologically to take that momentous step."
Given the socio-economic profiles of the women, most of them are found to be suited for vocations like tailoring, nursing help and machine knitting – professions that have low-skill requirements and need only a minimum level of education. A number of women have also become self-employed, usually after undergoing a self-employment workshop.
Swayam has helped several women to take off on the road to economic empowerment. Some have been placed as assistants in lifestyle and clothes boutiques in the city; one works in a CSO-run canteen; a number function as short-term nursing help. Still others have businesses of their own.
One woman manages a catering service in her locality. A couple of women buy saris from wholesalers to sell door-to-door. A woman who was apprenticed with an undergarment boutique is now all set to be become a manufacturer and wholesaler of women's underclothing.
I speak with Shabnam, a young woman who has just begun working in the service industry and can barely contain her elation over embarking on a career. She hails from an orthodox family with limited means, ruled by an autocratic, abusive father, and where almost all resources are invested in the future of the single male child to the detriment of the five daughters.
"My father refused to send me to college," she said. "I was terrified of falling into the inevitable pattern of being married off and then beaten by my husband. I just had to get a job, but my parents refused
me financial support for vocational training. I was in a state of hopelessness and extreme depression. Then my younger sister brought home a Swayam leaflet from school. This changed my life. I went through counseling sessions where I learned what kinds of jobs I could do. Now I'm working and loving it!"
Today, Shabnam feels strong and is ready to take on any opposition. She hopes to play a positive role in her sisters' lives through her example.
For all these success stories, the career counseling program records very slow progress, with a depressing 50 percent dropout rate between 1999-2000. The reasons are complex and rooted in their social context.
Sridhar explains: "For all the thoroughness and intensity of our counseling program, you need to keep in mind that we are up against centuries of cultural conditioning. These women have never considered a career of their own. They have been housewives and mothers, and this has only perpetuated the culture of dependency. For most, if they are thinking of a job at all, it is because they have been thrown into a situation where they need to earn to survive. Their motives are shortsighted."
Sridhar said that the pressures of working as a single parent, the constant worry about uncertain home situations, and the alien, often intimidating elements of a workplace, when coupled with the "housewife guilt complex" (the guilt women experience for leaving their children alone while they work), leads to a situation where – as soon as things at home improve, even marginally – these women revert to their housewife roles.
Seeding an Attitudinal Systemic Change
Engineering this change in social attitudes is an integral part of Swayam's agenda, and is carried out through an ambitious awareness building and public education program that aims at generating discussion and debate in society. The program focuses on working with diverse audiences that include professional groups, students, community workers and any social group who may not be working directly with the issue but are interested in information on it.
Over the years, Swayam has conducted several workshops and discussions with the legal community, the police, students and other community groups. All its campaigns seek to involve the women they are directly serving by inviting participation (like the theatre group) help in the organizing, etc.
With the police and the legal community, Swayam's work is focused at sensitization. "After the nightmare of what she has been through, a whole new trauma begins when she tries to register charges with the police and encounters the legal system," Kapoor noted.
The police routinely refuse to register cases and it is common for a woman to be made to feel ashamed for bringing what continues to be regarded as private family matter, to the public space. And legal proceedings, more often than not, put the woman's character on trial rather than function as a process of justice.
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How Geared are Indian Laws to Protect Women?
Be the judge – discover the loopholes in some of the sections of the Indian Penal Code below:
304B. Dowry death
Where the death of a woman is caused by any burns or bodily injury or occurs otherwise than under normal circumstances within seven years of her marriage and it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or any relatives of her husband for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry, such death shall be called "dowry death", and such husband or relative shall deemed to have caused her death . . . Whoever commits dowry death shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years but which may extend to imprisonment for life.
306. Abetment of suicide
If any person commits suicide, whoever abets the commission of such suicide, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
354. Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty
Whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any woman, intending to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.
376. Punishment for rape
Whoever commits rape shall be punished with imprisonment for life or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to a fine, unless the woman raped is his own wife and is not under 12 years of age, in which case he shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with a fine, or with both.
375. lists what comes under the definition of rape.
Significantly, an exception to all the actions which come under the law reads: "Sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape." Thus, non-consensual intercourse, intercourse where consent has been obtained through instilling fear of death or of hurt, is not rape if the couple is deemed to be legally married.
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Since 1997 Swayam, in collaboration with other women's organizations, has organized several workshops with the city police, usually at the thana (local police station) level which is most critically involved when a woman needs police assistance. The participants are made to understand the reality and vulnerability of a woman's situation and to realize out that she has reached a point in an abusive situation where she can think of no other option when she approaches them.
While Bharati Ghosh, a Calcutta-based senior policewoman, has been an active supporter of Swayam's activities, praise also comes from high-ranking male officials of this extremely male bastion of state power. Says Additional Commissioner of Police, S. Chakraborty, "I have attended a Swayam workshop as a resource person and witnessed the questions, interest and discussion it generated among my men. I've received positive feedback about other workshops they have attended and it's clear that such exercises play an important role in sensitizing the police."
Kapoor herself assumes a more realistic position about the value of these workshops: "It's going to take much more to alter the police force's basic attitude toward women, but through these interactions they at least get to know about Swayam. The next time we accompany a woman to the thana, we can hope for a little more cooperation."
Dr. Jashodhara Bagchi, a leading women's activist and member of a number of women's organizations, echoes these sentiments. She agrees that these workshops are important in forging connections with the police that can be strategically used when needed.
A highlight of Swayam's work with the legal community was a five-day residential workshop in 1999 for judges from the district and sub-divisional courts in West Bengal, as well as a few from the Calcutta High Court. This "Gender Justice and Judges" workshop, held in collaboration with a Delhi-based CSO, Sakshi, and under the aegis of The Asia Pacific Advisory Forum on Judicial Education and Gender Issues, was an intensive exploration of the subject of gender equality and its role in women's access to justice.
Initiatives such as this been have been hailed by the legal community. Advocate Uttam Kumar Ray, one of the two lawyers who works with Swayam, speaks enthusiastically about the impact of such programs. He experienced a tangible post-workshop transformation in the attitude of some of the participating judges, finding them "more willing to really listen to the woman's testimony; less inclined to counsel her to think of her children and make peace with her husband."
I ask Roy whether he feels he has become a more sensitive lawyer as a result of working with Swayam. "I realize how insensitive and judgemental I used to be," he replied. "I now understand where these women are coming from now. I'm a far better listener and I hope a better lawyer for them."
Another significant contribution by Swayam is their report, "Gender Equality and the Justice System" (1999), based on exhaustive research that presents the legal system from a woman litigant's perspective. The report is a shocking revelation of the gender biases that plague the judiciary and the legal system. It has been praised a by Supreme Court Judge, Ruma Pal, as an "eye opener" that "shames those who are obliged to be part of the process of dispensing justice." She regards the report's recommendations as "invaluable."
For Kapoor, the critical constituency for Swayam's public education program is children, and Swayam holds regular campaigns in schools. "Violence against women is a result of society regarding them as inferior to men," she said. "Making children realize the inequities and injustice that characterize gender roles is essential since they are the decision-makers of tomorrow."
Children view a poster exhibition on the theme of violence against women. Swayam regards children as a critical constituency for its public education and awareness-building program and the organization frequently holds talks, exhibitions and debates in schools around the city.
Kapoor's face lights up as she describes the response from the children: teenaged boys who have come up after a discussion and admitted that they had never really questioned their mother's assigned role in the kitchen; or a child sharing the personal connection she has made with a Swayam poster.
Much of Swayam's success emerges from its recognition of networking as an important strategic tool, which has helped it create a dynamic, versatile referral service and coordinate high-impact campaigns. At the regional and national levels, Swayam has collaborated in actively intervening for policy changes, protesting miscarriages of justice, and campaigning against state and institutional violence.
But Swayam's strength is as much in its outward looking vision as the attention it pays to in-house capacity building. Its staff attend regular workshops and programs to update and professionalize their skills and knowledge.
Most full-time staff have undergone training in counseling and participated in a workshop to educate them on legal processes. No wonder then, that Advocate Ray says that in his long experience of working with numerous women's groups, Swayam is remarkable in the knowledge of legal issues that the staff brings to a case and their understanding of and willingness to negotiate the legal system.
Replicating the Model Isn't Good Enough
Thus far, Swayam's activities have remained restricted to in and around Calcutta, but the plan is to spread the model. Kapoor envisions this spread through the use of existing community resources. Interestingly, her goal is not to start up more Swayams. Rather, that existing groups should use Swayam as a blueprint and adapt the modalities according to their context, with all necessary training inputs from Swayam.
Kapoor has already worked with groups in other parts of the country, but now strongly feels this needs to be done in a more systemic way. A training manual is under preparation and tops Swayam's list of priorities.
The economic empowerment initiative will also receive more focus, especially the self-employment program. A child support group for the children of the women is also on the anvil.
Kapoor acknowledges that they urgently need to hire more staff and admits, "I'm afraid we've really neglected our volunteer base over the last couple of years and quite naturally they have lost interest. We definitely need to start a proper volunteer coordination program."
Financial constraints have forced many plans to be relegated to the back burner. While a small income is generated through the manufacture and sale of bags with messages protesting violence printed on them, Swayam is almost entirely dependent on funding for its finances. It has received grants from bodies like Ford Foundation, The Jules and Paul Leger Foundation of Canada, Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, and the Global trust for Women U.S.A. Private donations from individuals also help support their work. Now fortunately, their financial situation permits them to start turning some of those future plans into reality.
All around us, the office is a swirl of activity as staff fine-tune details for the launch of Swayam's annual fortnight Protesting Violence Against Women – a multi-media campaign. I pick up a Swayam leaflet and the statistics at the back hit me (taken from 1997 records of the National Crime Records Bureau):
- One act of cruelty by husbands and relatives every 14 minutes
- One dowry death every 87 minutes
- One act of molestation every 17 minutes
- One act of sexual harassment every 90 minutes
- One rape every 34 minutes
- One act of abduction every 33 minutes
- One cognizable crime every 4 minutes
Shabnam might easily have become a statistic herself, had not a leaflet like this one changed her life. And for that moment it becomes possible to dare to dream of a future where women are free.
Areas of Need:
- Contributions in cash or kind
- Help with fundraising
- Volunteering time/professional skills
- Help in identifying lawyers and doctors sympathetic to women
- Contacts for jobs
- Helping women set up small scale enterprises
- Helping find temporary shelter for women
Contact:
Swayam
11 Balu Hakkak Lane
Calcutta 700 017
India
Tel: +91-33-280-3429; 280-3688
Fax: +91-33-280-2866
Email: swayam@cal.vsnl.net.in
Arundhati Ray is a Calcutta-based journalist who writes for national publications on issues of social concern. She has co-authored a book on Sikkim. Ray obtained a Ph.D. from the State University of New York and runs a placement service that is exclusively for women.
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