20 Years of Disha
2000: Women Cell, Nari Adalats

A Woman Cell was created in the organisation to provide space to the work being done among women. The Women Cell was provided an equipped office accommodation. The workers associated with the activity legal aid were transferred to the cell and a few fresh workers were recruited. Both old and new workers were given orientation to meet new challenges.

Soon after formation, the Women Cell started devising strategies for interventions being carried out in extending succour to the harried women. The most notable of this was the mechanism of Nari Adalat (Women Court). Initially Nari Adalats were organised on 24th of every month, but later the date was changed to 10th. Prominent people from the area of victims are invited to Nari Adalat to seek a solution to the problems being faced by victims.

Ever since the Women Cell came into existence, it is laying great emphasis on documentation. Each case is duly ‘registered’ and proceedings, including happenings during field visits to verify the facts, are recorded in detail. This helps in follow up of cases. The Women Cell keeps an up-to-date repository of cases. It has also engaged a woman lawyer to advise it on legal ramifications of various cases. This lawyer also contests cases in courts, if necessary.

The Women Cell helps women in particular and people in general who are victims of violence. The largest chunk of cases that are brought to it for solution pertain to family violence – violence committed on women by their husbands, fathers- in-law, mothers-in-law and brothers-in-law. The reason of such harassment range from not bringing enough dowry in marriage to looks of women to extramarital relations to suspicion of theft to anything possible under sun. Women Cell classifies instances of violence under identified broad heads of rape, domestic violence, dowry, suicide, murder, mental violence, civil violence, kidnapping, health violence, torture and others.

In most of the cases dialogue by the Women Cell functionaries solves the problems of women. But still there are many instances in which such dialogue did not yield results and the cases were taken to the competent authorities in quest of a solution.

Often the Women Cell solves cases forwarded to it by the police. Yet the relations with the police are not very cordial because the cell functionaries keep a vigilant eye on the functioning of the police (often because of corruption) in cases of violence against women. Normally in such cases it is able to mount pressure on the local police by taking up the matter with the higher police officials, and if that fails, with the National Commission for Women, the apex national level body promoted by the government.

Advocacy for Women Rights

In the recent years considerable emphasis is being given to advocacy for women rights. This does not mean to say that this is something new – earlier the efforts were largely unorganised, now they are more organised. Advocacy is being carried out at the local, regional, national and international levels.

At the local level the Women Cell continued to liaise with local, state and national level media. As a result, the organisation is now finding due place in news. In addition news clippings related to women issues are maintained regularly. These clippings are a vital learning source about the issues concerning women. Recently the Women Cell has begun utilising electronic medium as a tool of advocacy. The coordinator of the Women Cell went to the head office of news channel Star News with a women victim on September 12, 2003, to present her before the news channel.

Disha has developed good relations with the women organisations working at the state and national level. Regular participation in their events helps the organisation reach voice of women far and wide. Apart from this Disha jointly holds events with them. A mention needs to be made of Disha’s participation in a study on magnitude of violence against women in Uttar Pradesh. The study was carried out by Vama, a network of women organisations based in the state capital Lucknow, and another women’s organisation, Aali.

On the international level, the organisation’s director visited The Netherlands in 2002. He presented a paper Violence against Women in India: Suffering Continues Despite Progress All Over at the International Conference on Social Welfare. While presenting the general scenario of violence against women in India and Disha’s experience in fighting the menace, the paper concluded that violence against women was endemic in India because women were highly vulnerable owing to poor quality of life indicated by rampant poverty, lack of education, high under five mortality, poor health status, high fertility rate and high maternal mortality rate. Societal mindset also contributed to the violence against women.

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