Another meaning which denotes the term woman’s friend is none other than the Social Resource Center named SAKHI, who supports and encourages women and woman’s collectives…. with gender perspective in all their activities. It is a space, for women to come together, share their pains, anxieties, pleasures and fun. The Vision of the organization is to create a society based on equality, equity and peace,
The Mission is to thrive for eliminating discrimination’s and exploitations prevailing in the present day society. It also attempt to bridge the gap between local & global events & national & international debates regarding feminist thoughts and practices. The main aim of the organization is to mainstream gender in the political discourses of Kerala. It also wishes that Men to be gender aware and join w omen’s struggle.
Since last 10 years it has been one of joy, pride, anxieties and sometimes even hopelessness. But it has survived because of all the support and also because of the faith reposed in them by the many women, youth and pro-feminist men with whom they have encountered during there journey. The resource center was set up with the support of the John D and Catherine T Mac Arthur Foundation in the form of a three-year fellowship awarded to Aleyamma Vijayan in 1996, after she worked for 16 years with the marginalized communities. After three years of the fellowship, Sakhi was registered as a charitable trust. The trustees are Dr.Sundari Ravindran, Dr Manju Nair, Dr.Neena Joseph, Mercy Alexander and Aleyamma Vijayan. We also have an advisory committee to help and advise us on policy matters. They are Nalini Nayak (Sewa), Ms Mini Sukumar (Department of W omen’s Studies, Calcutta University), Mr.A.J.Vijayan (Protsahan), Prof T.A.Menon (CMD), Mr.Jagajeevan (Kudumbasree, Ms. Parvati Devi Journalist,, Anitha.S (Environmentalist Activist). The Sakhi team presently consists of Aleyamma Vijayan, Mercy Alexander, Rejitha G, Mini Rajkumar, Beenamol, Geetha.J, Sreekala T.S and Soni S.R.
Sakhi started with the idea that information is power’ and that micro level women’s groups in Kerala need to be assisted to develop a feminist perspective by disseminating information on gender, feminism and related issues. Sakhi wanted to act as bridge’ between what is happening at the International and national level on theories and actions around feminism and the micro level w omen’s groups in Kerala.The library and documentation center of Sakhi caters to this need. It has more than 7000 books , a number of journals, magazines, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, posters, audio and videocassettes and CD’s.
Sakhi’s activities involves Information and Dissemination, Capacity Building programmes,Governance Initiatives, Through Research into action, Advocacy /Violence Intervention Programmes / Campaigns, Community Outreach, Networking for movement building/Collaboration, Working with young people, Archieves of old programmes and workshops.
Sakhi’s involvement with the local self governments started with the close association with the decentralization programmes initiated by the state government in Kerala in 1996. This innovative process offered an opportunity to mainstream gender in the political discourse in Kerala and to build capacities of women who were elected to represent people. The 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments brought many women into the social and political realm. They perceived that as their opportunity and responsibility, to build the capacity of these women to critique the ongoing development from a gender perspective and be proactive to bring about a gender just society in whichever party they belong to. A special body named the Jagratha Samithis (vigilance cells) was started in Panchayats to form and strengthen as a community response to address violence against women. This is to be constituted in all Wards, Panchayats and Districts under the guidance of State Women ’s Commission. Several of our training efforts were directed to support these process as it would lead to wider gender sensitization of the community, especially of men. Another important activity of the resource center is to give some Legal support, Anti-Sexual Harassment committees at working places, Campaigns which include International campaign on violence against women.Legal support means that the official statistics from State Police of national Crime Records Bureau says that violence against women in Kerala is increasing. The numerous complaints received by State Women ’s Commission and Women ’s organizations on domestic violence, sexual violence, dowry deaths; workplace harassment’s, child sexual abuse etc provide enough proof for this.In this context Sakhi within the scope of limited resource, started a legal cell in 2002. We lend free legal aid and counseling to those women from poor families who approach us with cases of any forms of violence. We also believe that it is important to prevent violence against women rather than intervene after it happens. Therefore through network of community based organizations and Self help group’s awareness programmes and campaigns are conducted. Anti Sexual Harassment Committees at Workplaces means in accordance with the Supreme Court guidelines, many government offices and public sector units have set up anti harassment committees and Sakhi staffs are members of many such committees. They use this opportunity to conduct gender awareness programmes.Campaigns means the resource center believes that it is more important to prevent violence against women than intervene when it happens and for this awareness programmes and attitudinal changes are needed. Besides, men need to know that there is someone to support the women, if they harass them. So through the network of Self Help groups (SHG) and other community based organizations, awareness programmes and campaigns are conducted. Leaflets, posters and other visual materials are used.
Community Outreach programmes were done by the resource center. All the activities of the resource center are moulded and shaped by their interaction at the grass root level, like the interactions at the many Panchayats we work and also in some coastal villages through the women and children. The work with the Local governments further strengthened there interactions as they were able to interact with women from agricultural communities and women in other traditional occupations.A major thrust of the community work was at Karimkulam panchayat, which is a coastal panchayat in Trivandrum. They collaborated with a network of local women ’s group called Stree Aikyavedi (Women ’s United Front) and conduct meetings, workshops, seminars and other programmes. Another focus area was Alappad, the tsunami affected coastal village in Kollam district. Here too, many supporting activities, demanded by the local government was undertaken like capacity building programmes, camps for adolescent children, exposure visits, assistance in project preparation for livelihood activities etc. The library cum Anganwadi center at Alappad was built with our support and is functioning well.They also identified strategic groups from among the most disadvantaged groups (fishing and tribal) and supported them to develop their leadership capabilities and to identify issues which needed urgent action. This work was done to a large extent in Pulluvilla and Vellarad Panchayat.
Networking for movement building/ Collaboration with other institutions have also been done by the Resource center.As a resource center, they feel it as there responsibility to collaborate with other organizations and institutions in further advancing the cause of women. They have collaborated with various programmes and campaigns organized by different organizations and institutions.Various organizations have associated with them by sending their staff for the training programmes organized by them or by joining the campaigns and other activities. Sewa, Trivandrum, Anweshi, Calcutta, Protsahan etc are few of the many organizations who closely interact with them.Besides these, a major focus of there activities is helping the emergence of a movement of women, capable of taking up issues and exercising women ’s agency. They are part of the network of women’s groups in Kerala called Kerala Stree Vedi (Kerala women ’s forum). They actively take part in the struggles and campaigns organized as part of the forum.That community involvement strengthens there other activities and in this besides the work in all the different panchayats, women ’s groups of Vizhinjam and Pulluvilla deserve our special thanks. They actively participated in all the activities and struggles and were keen to get them involved in the adolescent programmes in the village, besides offering constant support to victims of violence in spite of so many negative pressures.At the national level, there are a member of the national network of autonomous women ’s organizations (NNWAG), national co ordination committee (NCC) etc and take part in the joint programmes.
They also have conducted a study about Gender based Violence in Kerala.The study on Gender based Violence in Kerala is intended to assess the needs of survivors of gender based violence (GBV) as a first step towards strengthening the efforts of the health system in Kerala, to effectively advocate and coordinate various initiatives to address gender based violence as a public health issue. A range of data collection tools were used to understand the prevalence and nature of gender based violence and women ’s health seeking behaviour. Observations of health facilities and interview of Service providers at various levels including health care providers, counselors and police were conducted.The study brings out important aspects of gender based violence in a society like Kerala, which claims to have achieved very high levels of development and where women are far ahead of their counterparts elsewhere in India. It also brings out the lacuna in terms of lack of support services for survivors of gender based violence and points out the need to initiate policy and programmatic interventions which are gender sensitive at the health care settings . Support services at different levels in society are urgently required. The Declaration on Elimination of Violence Against Women adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993, defines Violence Against Women as “any act of gender based violence against women that results in or is likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or private spaces”.Gender based violence is a common reality in the lives of women and girls in many parts of the world, developing and industrialized countries alike. It has been recognized as a violation of basic human rights of women and of their exercise of fundamental freedom.Gender-based violence against women has also now been acknowledged as a major public health issue. According to a WHO report, among women aged 15-44 years, gender violence accounts for more deaths and disability than, cancer, malaria, traffic injuries or war put together. Different types of gender based violence include physical violence,sexual violence,Threat of physical or sexual violence and Psychological or emotional abuse.
To conclude that almost 40% of women have ever experienced any type of domestic violence during their lifetime. Physical violence and psychological violence are the most common types of violence experienced. The majority of perpetrators are husbands. The violence resulted in significant psychological distress in about 50% of the women, about 8% experienced suicidal idealization and 10% incurred serious injury warranting medical attention. Reporting of violence in public places and in workplaces was relatively low, probably due to the high representation of non-working women in the study sample.
Women experienced domestic violence across all educational strata almost equally, and in fact women with a university degree reported a slightly higher level of violence than others with any education. A greater proportion of women working as casual labourers had experienced any violence in their lifetime than other workers and even homemakers. There was not a perceptible difference across age groups in lifetime experience of violence, suggesting that for those experiencing violence, this experience may start early in their lives. Having been subjected to dowry demand before and after marriage, and having no say in matters related to contraception and sex within marriage emerged as factors most significantly associated with lifetime experience of violence. The association of lifetime experience of violence with decision-making power within the household shows that overall, a smaller proportion of those who were part of the decision-making process experienced violence as compared to those who were the sole decision-makers, as well as those who were never consulted for any major household decision.
In the context of Kerala, as mentioned earlier though women are highly literate when compared to other states their decision making, autonomy, public participation, work participation and mobility are still severely restricted. In such a situation it is not fair to assume that women in Kerala will be vocal and come out in the open about the violence they face in the public or private spheres. The stigma of violence against women within homes especially from husbands, the unwillingness to relive the experiences, no guarantee for benefit, the possibility of re victimization and the shame and blame prevents them from disclosing the information to outsiders and particularly the health system that they do not see as a potential source of help. It is also because they do not relate the reason for their ill health to the violence they face.
