On the 9th day of the 2018 Prajnya 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence, we scheduled a workshop on Domestic Violence. The workshop was conducted at our office in partnership with Roshni, our partner organisation who work with self-help group women. Twenty five self-help group women from Roshni participated in the workshop.
The workshop was designed in an interactive mode with activities and films to talk about what is all about domestic; what does the domestic abuse mean; what are the myths related to the domestic abuse; the cycle of violence; how does it impact the women and children in different ways; legal framework to combat domestic abuse; how to approach the police and how can the FIR be filed; what is the importance of bystander intervention and what steps the bystander can take to protect the women in distress.
It was really an interactive session where women mostly related the incidents happened in and around their lives. At some point of the workshop, they were split into pairs and allowed to choose a chit which had commonly believed statements around domestic abuse like "Jealousy is the sign of love', "Smashing things is not abusive, it is just venting" etc. And the groups opened up the discussion around the statement they got.
Also, various short films were shown on types of domestic violence, how it impacts children, and how the bystander could intervene and a discussion was built around the movies.
The workshop was closed with the distribution of the flyer 'Call For Help'. The subject of the workshop was very serious but then it was built with the laughter and fun by the women. There were few women who came up and asked for the help and was referred to the self providers. Their energy still remains in our office space to keep us in momentum to work tirelessly towards ending all violence against women.
