Violence Against Women
 SAHAYOG believes that violence against women is not only a women’s
issue but also a larger social issue and a human rights violation.
Violence against women is a direct result of unequal gender
power-relations upheld by social institutions. A survey report published
in 1999 found that 46% of all men surveyed in Uttar Pradesh admitted to
physically abusing their wives, an earlier study found that men consider
wife battering as their natural rights. In addition to the regular
staple of domestic violence, dalit women in UP have to contend with
caste-based violence; woman also face communal violence and incidents of
violence by state actors.Objectives:
Supporting the HUMSAFAR Crisis Support Centre SAHAYOG has been working since 2004 as a partner in the collective effort to run the HUMSAFAR Crisis Support Centre in Lucknow, U.P. The Centre is run through collaboration among various organizations, networks and concerned individuals. SAHAYOG refers cases of violence against women that come up through our interventions to HUMSAFAR for social work, legal and economic support, and also plays a role in the management of HUMSAFAR. For more information, please click the HUMSAFAR link. Work with men and boys on violence against women SAHAYOG promotes awareness-building and campaigning among men and
boys on women’s human rights, especially the right to a violence-free
life. SAHAYOG supports interventions in schools, colleges and
universities that encourage young men and boys to take public positions
against incidents of VAW, and to work towards prevention of VAW.
University students have campaigned to ensure that their campus is
violence-free and that there are functioning Sexual Harassment
Committees. School students have participated in road-shows outside
school-gates to campaign against harassment of school-going girls. Very
large numbers of men have recently campaigned for social acceptance of
the recent law on domestic violence. Work on cases of violence based on caste or religion Over the last few years SAHAYOG has worked with other women’s
organizations on cases of violence against women based on their
religious belief or caste. This includes violence against young women
who exercise their right to choose a partner, sexual violence against
Dalit women by men of other castes, and violence against women of
religious minorities. SAHAYOG has participated in fact-finding missions,
undertaken case-work to help the survivors access justice, formed
delegations to senior officials and campaigned against such forms of
violence. |
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