National Domestic Violence Hotline- Building and Strengthening Support Systems and community awareness

On an average, burn injuries claim the lives of 91,000 women annually in India. (Source: National Burns Programme,2014). While most of these burns get recorded as kitchen accidents, in reality they are self-inflicted or inflicted by the partner or his family and often indicate a long history of domestic abuse. Very often, women do not have the information or the access to resources that they require in crisis situations, which further exacerbates their condition. Since the time PCVC came into existence it has had a 24 hours crises telephone line on which it receives on an average 500 new crisis calls every year. Whilst these calls and messages are predominantly from women within Tamil Nadu, PCVC has also been receiving a high volume of calls, about 25% of all calls, from across the country as well as from Indian women who have settled abroad after marriage and are on dependent visas.

Secondly, psycho-social, law enforcement, legal, medical, livelihood and other civil society support for women affected by violence is scattered and hard to access across the state of Tamil Nadu and beyond. Therefore, many women survivors slip through the cracks and are lost to the system.

Key strategies and actions, which PCVC applies to address the problem are

-design and offer comprehensive set of services to women who reach out to PCVC when they are in situation of violence, discrimination and abuse. These services include psychosocial counseling, medical and health related services, legal support through referrals, skill building, education support to women’s children and linking with relevant employment opportunities.

- voice and platform to women in situation of violence through a 24-hours domestic violence hotline. This creates accessible support for women to reach out when in situation of crisis.

- Expanding and strengthening support system for women survivors through technical capacity building of stakeholders and actors who provide support services such as medical service providers, civil society organizations, legal representatives, employers, skill building institutions etc.

- prevention of violence against women through working on changing attitudes and mindsets of young men and boys. This is largely done to reach to student groups in formal education institutions and mobilizing changemakers who will not only practice non-violence and equality but also motivate others - mass community awareness initiatives on existence of support services, VAW to enhance support seeking and speaking up behavior of women in situation of violence.

Proposed project will

1- Challenge and bring a shift in the culture and practice of violence against women in any form.

2- The services offered directly or through referral will enable women to seek support , speak out against violence perpetrated on them thereby breaking the notion of " domestic violence is a private matter"

3- Contribute to the mobilisation of a critical mass of young women and men in the society who will practice and promote non-violent, discriminatory social norms and traditions replacing those which perpetrate violence against women.

4- Contribute to the establishment of a comprehensive support system constituting diverse and relevant stakeholders which is sensitive, DV and trauma informed and workers on the principles of gender justice and human rights.

To begin with the programme is being implemented in selected districts of Tamil Nadu but the overall goal is to extend the programme across all states.