Help women fight sexual violence

Impact

As the nation is in outrage about the gruesome cases which have caught the limelight, there are thousands of young children and women who have survived horrific cases of sexual assault and rape. Majlis, a Mumbai-based NGO, works with these victims to provide legal aid and counselling.**Geeta* didn't know what rape was until the police told her that it was what her father was doing to her.**She was just 8 when it started. Her mother had died and she was at the mercy of her alcoholic and abusive father.**She was scared to speak up when the same happened with her siblings.** After years of suffering, she finally worked up the courage to run away from home. She was 16.She reached Mumbai and was referred to Majlis through a well-wisher. She told her heart-wrenching story to the legal professionals at Majlis, and asked for help. **Majlis supported Geeta throughout her struggle.** They pushed her case in court, and finally her father got sentenced to 10 years in jail. Her original family home was recovered with help of her neighbours by Majlis and she was reunited with her siblings at a shelter home.**Often we focus our anger on the immediate news cycles and the horrific stories that emerge.** For child sex abuse victims like Geeta, making sure that they are safe and protected is the first step to rehabilitation. Making sure that her attacker will face punishment is the best way to assure this.For over two decades, **Majlis's all-women’s team comprising lawyers and social workers has provided social and legal support to ~50,000 women and children facing violence** and helped them access justice.Give now and support child sex abuse victims like Geeta get legal services to fight their battles.*Names changed to protect the identity of the survivor.

About The Program

Majlis Legal Centre, through its program 'Rahat' provides socio-legal support to victims of sexual abuse. In the first response, the all-women team of lawyers and social workers meets victims and understands their needs, offers legal consultation and presents them with the pre-litigation and litigation options available as well as the pros and cons of their case. Documents, procedures, and processes are explained to them so that they can take an informed decision. The survivor is informed about the availability of legal services, public & private schemes such as shelter, education, medical, legal aid, etc. Further legal help is also given as required in the case. Donations to this program will be used for legal documentation and processes expenses as well as personnel salaries of lawyers fighting for sexual violence victims.When you donate to this program, your help will ensure that the victims have access to lawyers who will fight for them.

About The NGO

Majlis Manch is a Public Trust and an NGO headed by renowned Advocate and Women's Rights Activist, Flavia Agnes. Majlis started in 1991 as a response to a growing need for lawyers with a gender perspective who are dedicated to evolving innovative legal practices to defend women's rights. Majlis had started by providing legal support and guidance to women facing domestic violence to access their rights and pursue justice in courts. They further extended support to women and child victims of sexual violence as well as sexual harassment at the workplace.They are also involved in training, research, campaigns, and publications on issues concerning violence against women and children. They work to demystify laws and make them accessible to judges, lawyers, prosecutors, police, NGOs and other government and non-government representatives and most importantly, to women themselves. The broad categories of their programs are as follows:LitigationRahat (for sexual violence, domestic violence, and social support)Training and AwarenessPolicy interventions and public campaignsNetworkingPublications on women's legal rights and Research