Empower girls like Priti in slums in Pune, India

Recently, Jonathon Clark, Karuna Trust Programme Manager for the project visited the team in India to monitor the work and offer guidance. Here are his thoughts on the recent anti-violence against women campaign carried out by the project:

"When I visited, the team were in the middle of a fortnight long campaign focussing on the issue of violence against women. The campaign has been organised through the Maitri network; a network of women’s organisations from different parts of India that was set up and facilitated by Karuna Trust. The network enables representatives of women’s organisations to come together to share their experiences and organise nationwide campaigns on issues of relevance to women from dalit and other marginalised backgrounds. Involvement in this network has enabled the project team to broaden the scope of their work. After three years of working intensively at a grassroots community level they are now extending their awareness raising activities to  include police, teachers and local schools. This is allowing them to have a broader impact on the issues affecting the lives of their beneficiaries.

The team was obviously very excited by the campaign, and feeling confident and empowered. Over the previous week the team had organised a rally of 200 women and girls that was covered by all the local papers. They also conducted an awareness raising session with 100 teachers on the Sexual Harassment Act and Domestic Violence Act; awareness raising sessions with 700 adolescent boys on the theme of respect for women; and two sessions with local police on domestic violence and sexual harassment involving 100 local policemen. Earlier in the month they had organised a training in Pune for representatives of 40 other women’s organisations from different parts of India, focussing on the Domestic Violence Act and recent legislation on sexual harassment.

The project leader Karunaprabha expressed her satisfaction “Before we felt we were working in isolation but now we are able to learn from other organisations and use their experience to take our work to a new level. Now we are even able to become a leading women’s organisation and provide leadership and training to other organisations. I am now doing things I never dreamed I’d be able to do."