Countering Violence Against Women in Rajasthan: Problems, strategies and hazards
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Development. Copyright © 2001 The Society for International Development. SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), 1011-6370 (200109) 44:3; 111–113; 019087.
SID On-line Dialogue
Countering Violence Against Women in Rajasthan: Problems, strategies and hazards ALICE GARG
ABSTRACT Alice Garg describes the various strategies that the Bal Rashmi Society has been employing over three decades in their fight against violence against women. In sharing the story of Bal Rashmi – an NGO started in 1972 for orphans, destitute girls and women – she underlines the importance of communication amongst the people working against VAW on different levels. She looks at the need to build good communication, solidarity and collaboration slowly and sustainably when taking on corrupt political actors, learning from the distressing time that her Society experienced in Rajasthan in 1997. KEYWORDS Bal Rashmi; communication; girls’ education; India
Introduction Violence Against Women (VAW) still continues to be a major issue for all women in India, irrespective of race, religion, caste or clan. Even the economically selfdependent women, married or unmarried, encounter violence. This is, however, not to deny the importance and role that education and economic self-reliance have played in countering the frequency and intensity of such violence and in generating awareness of this core sociological issue and in building up some organized movements in all parts of the world to fight VAW. The struggle has to be waged on all fronts – field level, community level, domestic level, academic and research level, political, legislative, judicial, police and socio-economic level. Strategies of the Bal Rashmi Society for women’s empowerment Much of the work of Bal Rashmi (BRS) has been around improving and protecting the girl child. BRS has paid close attention to the education of the girl child coming from the Hindu ‘low’ caste or minority Muslim communities of the
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Development 44(3): SID On-line Dialogue lower economic strata, living in the slum areas of Jaipur and in the rural area of Jaipur, Dausa and Tonk districts. BRS runs four schools – two primary and two upper primary – in the slums of Jaipur with over 1300 students, almost half of them girls. In rural areas BRS caters for one primary and one upper primary school with over 300 students, one third of which are girls. Sponsorship and extra coaching are provided for over 1200 other children (with over 550 of them girls) in nearby government schools. BRS runs camps on reproductive health in the rural areas and an income generation programme to support formal and non-formal education of girls. The village Mahila Mandals (women’s groups) organize the credit, discuss matters of mutual and community interest and also have a fund of their own to loan small amounts and to recover the same within a specified period. Panchayati Raj awareness and training camps for women representatives are also run by BRS to support
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