Support the journey of Homeless Young Women towards a life of Dignity

19 years old Najiya hails from a small village in Bihar. She lived with her parents who were very abusive (physically and verbally) towards her from a young age. The abuse and discrimination spilled over to other aspects of her life, where she was also forced to drop out of school after 9th standard. Unable to take the daily abuse and sub-standard treatment, Najiya took the courageous decision to leave her home. Still not sure about her next step, she got onto a train and arrived in Mumbai. Being from a small village she was unaware of the dangers lurking but was fortunately found by the police who brought her with URJA. Najiya is now working on her education along with exploring new avenues, such as sports where she ran the 10K of Tata Mumbai Marathon for the first time!

As per NHFS-4, every 3rd woman, since the age of 15 years has faced various forms of domestic violence within their maternal or marital homes. Home being the one safe haven is lost to these young women who are forced to leave and become homeless with no access to civil rights and without external support.

URJA facilitates homeless young women by ensuring they have a safe space at the shelter and within this safe space, they are able to introspect, dream, and become reacquainted with their real potential. Through outreach, our team of social workers, reach out to women and their children at the railway station in need of support. Our rehabilitation programmes look after their fundamental needs of shelter, nutrition and health and wellbeing. Our transformation project involves physical fitness and outbound adventures, linkages to education, vocational training, livelihood options and access to civil rights.

Due to the lack of external support, we assist them. To address this we are constantly networking with government officials, police, and other government institutions. This is being done so that we can bring about policy level changes in order to ensure that there is state support for homeless young women across the country.

Lastly, we are constantly engaging with civil society as it is here where the young women will be living their lives and it is the community at large which should understand their problem and be their supporters in the time of need.

Transformation cannot be limited to individuals but needs to pervade into the system as well. To realize our vision of a just, equitable and compassionate society where young women pursue their lives with freedom and dignity. Our mission is to act as a catalyst for homeless young women to facilitate them to access their fundamental rights and create a platform for holistic development.

Due to the discrimination and abuse the young women are never really allowed to dream and explore their own needs and aspirations, nor are ever allowed to realize their full potential. At URJA through our holistic development programme, we give them the safe space where they can reassess their life, channelize their energy, resources and potential towards paving a path for life of dignity.

They also become aware of the meaning of gendered abuse so that they can stop the violence in the future, be it against them or any other individual. They are able to access their civil rights thus creating space for themselves within civil society.