Volunteering @ Sshrishti: An experience worth sharing

 

Household Horrors

Shagun Kulshreshtha

“At home”, a phrase that makes one feel relaxed, at peace, vulnerable and safe. Family can provide a kind of comfort that no one can match. But with the social norms that regard females as the “weaker” gender, there often are cases of domestic violence against them.

Women face unfair treatment not only in their own families but also from their spouses or partners. Alcoholism, financial troubles, mental stress, need to assert physical power, and one’s insecurities are some factors that drive the dominant to abuse the submissive. All households, no matter from whichever walk of life, experience these issues.

These heinous crimes take place behind closed doors and victimises wives, daughters, nieces, and even granddaughters. From the rural parts of India to the urbanized cities, gender-based domestic violence is an abusive expression of patriarchy. The use of physical force, mental torture, and even murders have deemed women’s homes unsafe.

City folks, claiming to be “modern” and “open-minded” often go ahead with marriages with the underlying objective of personal benefit without the bride’s opinion. Frustrations often lead to marital rape and molestation as well. Women are subjected to mental tortures like forcing them to quit work for household chores, having a child, etc. by their in-laws, without any intervention from their partners.

Relatively, the situation is worse in less developed areas. Women are denied the right to education so they can get married early. After marriage, they are forced to give their all to the family of their husbands. Dowry, while banned, still poses a huge issue for the women as they are tortured, humiliated, insulted, raped, and even murdered for it.

More than 70% of the cases in India go unreported due to the fear of disownment by the victims’ families, embarrassment, killing, and injustice. Women are scared to come forward with these issues are humiliated by their own families and communities. The cases that are reported, hardly get the justice they deserve.

In times of the current pandemic of COVID-19, there is a drastic rise in the domestic violence cases all over the world due to the lockdowns. The victims are trapped with their abusers and are unable to seek help.

In July 2018, the Delhi Women’s Commission busted a racket of illegal drugs and liquor with the assistance of Sshrishti. This activity had posed a major disturbance for the women in Bhatti Mines as the males would get intoxicated and beat their wives and children. This proves that multiple factors cause domestic violence, and all should be treated with utmost urgency. No human should be subject to this sort of barbaric behaviour.

Sshrishti’s Mahila Panchayat records over 100 cases per month, only from Bhatti Mines in Delhi. In July, there have been a lot of cases, mostly of domestic violence. The effective method of counselling milder cases and helping in the filing of the more severe cases is the right approach required to fight this social evil. Women feel more empowered when they are heard by their spouses and men are sensitized to the fact that their partner should be treated as an equal and with respect else, there will be dire consequences of their actions.

We need more initiatives and more awareness about these issues so there is less stigmatisation of the victims and more of the abusers. We need changes that punish these violators severely while protecting the rights of the victims.