Help women victims of Domestic Violence in India

Case stories

N. female 21yrs Jodhpur Child marriage

N married in 2006 when she was 10 years old and now wants a divorce. Her in-laws are living in the village and do farmwork. Her husband’s education was up to 12^th class and has no job. N. is studying for a BA in English and is keen to study but her in-laws don’t want her to.  N. wants to make this child marriage void and is asking for legal assistance, so Sambhali assisted her to speak to the secretary of the legal aid authority who suggested she file a case. A lawyer was provided free of charge which is the rule in these cases where women seek to abolish their arranged child marriage.

R. male – Justice for his niece

On 5 June 2017, R’s niece K, and her daughter were killed in their village. K’s in-laws said it was suicide, but on 7/6/17 K’s father filed a case against K’s in-laws at the local police station. After this the police started the investigation, but now are not taking further action. K’s uncle travelled to Jodhpur to meet with the counsellor at Sambhali Trust with a file of the case. The counsellor took the number of the police who was investigating the case and spoke to him. He said that the man man accused of this murder had been arrested. The police promised that they would give full support to K’s father in this case.

M. Female 28 years old   Inter-caste marriage

M phoned Sambhali because her parents want her to marry a disabled man. They are against her studying, don’t let her work and torture her in many ways. She wants to marry someone her own age and whom she can understand. She said that someone wants to marry her; he is a teacher in a school. But due to his different caste, M’s parents won’t accept him and threaten to kill him. M also has a BEducation and wants to carry on with her career. She wanted advice as to what to do. Sambhali called her male friend and said that they are both adults and could get married in court/registry office if they wanted to. She suggested to consult with a lawyer to give them advice.

S. Female Domestic Abuse

S came into the Sambhali office with her relative. S told the counsellor that she lives in a village near Jodhpur and that she had been married for 6 years. She told that her husband drank too much alcohol and beat her. As long as she was with her husband she continued to suspect his character and he continued to abuse her. After having a son, when he was 1 year old, she went to live at her father’s house because she did not want her son to be influenced by her husband’s bad habits. Even then her husband followed her and abused her and continued to be abusive on the phone and also threatened to kill her. She said she had studied up to 12^th Class and wanted to work being a teacher in a school. She said she wanted to stand on her own two feet and legally divorce her husband. That is why she came to the Sambhali office to ask for Legal Aid. Sambhali’s counsellor gave her general legal advice and spoke to a local lawyer whom then asked to see S. to provide her with legal assistance, so that she could understand the divorce process.

D Domestic Violence

D called up to say that his sister, S’s, husband drinks alcohol and beats her and degrades her sister’s character too. His sister is very upset. He believes his sister’s husband is having an affair with another woman. He is very worried about his sister but not want it to become a police case. Instead he wants his brother-in-law to have counselling. D asked for the HelpLine number and our counsellor gave him their local one in Jaipur.

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