Dilaasa crisis centres prove a haven for women facing domestic violence Dilaasa centre follows the concept of feminist counselling
For years, Rima Chari’s life involved hospital trips, the consequence of eight childbirths and frequent visits to treat the injuries caused by her husband’s beatings. The last time Chari (name changed), 35, came to Mumbai’s municipal-run K B Bhaba Hospital was because three fingers on her right hand were injured, and she could not work. “I fell,” was her default response when doctors asked her how she injured herself. But the doctors trained to see signs of domestic violence--injuries, fractures, poison consumption, multiple abortions and pregnancies etc--kept prodding gently till she revealed that her husband hit her with a brick.
Chari and her husband were migrants to India’s financial capital from Uttar Pradesh and did rag picking to sustain themselves, but her husband was ever suspicious and controlling. He did not allow her to work, talk to others and even forbade contraceptives. Nationally, almost one in three (33.3%) married women aged 15-49 years experienced spousal violence (physical/emotional or sexual) and 3.9% faced violence during pregnancy, according to the National Family Health Survey (201516) or NFHS-4. Of all women in India who have ever experienced any type of physical or sexual violence, only 14% have sought help to stop the violence; 77% have neither sought help nor told anyone about the violence they experienced, the survey further revealed.Hospitals are often the first place that women facing violence come to, but once there they rarely get the care that they need. Doctors do not recognise or willfully ignore signs of violence the women face, said experts, and treat them medically without offering social
ARTICLE SOURCE- BS/ BUSINESS STANDARD