Safe Slums: Prevention of Gender based Violence against Women / Girls

Survivors of sexual violence have very few dedicated shelters, in and around Hyderabad, apart from what government run State Home and Swadhar Homes, women need support beyond shelter and food i.e justice to recover and rehabilitate themselves from their own past and traumatic experience. These survivors are not only deprived of support but are at an increased risk of abuse due to various factors such as fear of authority, high risk behaviours to survive, fear to report or file cases, barriers related to accessing institutional services, lack of services for sexual assault victims, attached stigma, exclusion from community and social activities.

Survivors, given the complexity of circumstances, require appropriate timely health services, psychological counselling, legal counselling and assistance and livelihood opportunities, to reweave their lives; rehabilitation and repatriation back to the society.

Violence against women and violence against children often happen in the same families, initiating cycles of abuse within the home and across generations. Existing knowledge of how and why they occur together is limited.

Safe Slums project is a community-based intervention that aims to prevent gender-based violence against women /girls (VAW/G) through participatory action research. The project involves community counselors and single women collectives to address VAW/G. The project is proposed for implementation in 5 slum communities around Sayodhya short stay Home in Amberpet area, Hyderabad. The target beneficiaries are 1000 households of the neighbourhood who are highly transient, distinguished by lack of access to civic services and livelihood opportunities. The single women households lack support system for violence prevention such as friendly police and primary health centres, free family counselling centres.

Sayodhya runs short stay home for these women/young girls in distress, providing emergency response through its 24 hours of emergency telephone help line, arrange for emergency shelter, counselling family members to resolve issues, and in case of critical cases, taking them to women protection cell for further legal process. Sayodhya home, not only provides accommodation and child support to the victim, it also takes care of their children, regardless of their age and gender. The shelter staff closely collaborates with law enforcement agencies and judicial officials to ensure that survivors have access to protection, entitlements and other legal measures to assist with employment opportunities, as well with skill development support, as and when needed.

Free family counselling centres at slum level will be established with two women counsellors who shall hear out the cases of violence and provide counselling for victims of domestic violence, families and their children.

It is expected that through the provision of support services to survivors, it will be possible to have a direct and positive effect on their well-being.

• Formation of slum level social support groups with survivors of domestic abuse which offer solidarity, mutual support and confidence to its members

• Formation of adolescent girls groups

• Set up efficient community based free family counseling services

• Maintenance of short stay shelter home for victims of violence

• Maintain garment making unit and provide employment to 50 women fighters of abuse.