June 2024
In May 2024, our group, RT-Wt-04, came together for an important session on violence, facilitated by our trainer Sangeeta Singh. We started by delving into the concept of violence and what it truly means. Violence, we concluded, is not just physical harm but also the way we treat each other with disrespect and cruelty. If someone mistreats us, and we in turn mistreat others, we have a cycle of violence.
Violence against women, we learned, is specifically targeted at women because of gender. This type of violence stems from deep-seated gender biases and manifests in numerous ways—from physical abuse to mental and sexual torment, spanning a woman’s entire life, from before birth to death. Both men and women, often rooted in traditional values that devalue women, can perpetrate such violence. We recognized that domestic violence is a particularly pernicious form, involving discriminatory treatment by one family member against another.
The discussion then turned personal as we shared our own experiences. I got married at the tender age of 16, and within a year, I had my daughter. The pressure to have a son was immense, not just from my family but from neighbors and relatives too. This relentless insistence that I must bear a son weighed heavily on me, causing deep sadness and a sense of inadequacy.
In our group, early marriage was a common theme—out of 29 members, only one married after completing the 10th grade. We discussed how early marriage severely affects education, health, economic independence, and maternal well-being. Child marriage, we all agreed, should be eradicated.
The conversation revealed that many of us faced significant challenges during pregnancy. We lacked proper check-ups, nutrition, rest, and care. Many of us were forced to give birth at home and endure physical violence from our husbands, compounded by scolding from family members. A member in our group voiced her anger, attributing her suffering to her husband’s ingrained habits of violence.
We discussed the importance of seeking justice through appropriate channels—ward offices, municipalities, women’s rights forums, police offices, and courts. There are laws in place to punish abusers, with fines ranging from 3,000 to 25,000 or imprisonment up to six months, or both.
Our discussion then shifted to strategies for avoiding violence:
- Report incidents to neighbors.
- Adopt preventive measures.
- Confront the abuser.
- Garner support from children or other family members.
- Plan for safety.
- Pursue independent reading and education.
- Engage in income-generating activities.
- Ensure equal education for all children.
We also created slogans for eradicating violence:
- “Son daughter – equal education!”
- “Wake up men and women from home and end violence against women through child marriage, witchcraft, and dowry.”
As our session concluded, we expressed our gratitude to each other, the Slisha organization, and the WAWCAS program for their support and guidance.
The training left us not only with a deeper understanding of violence but also with a renewed commitment to combat it. Together, we pledged to support each other, educate our communities, and work towards a future free from violence.