Size & Contrast

Programme

Legal

Violence against Women & Girls

The legal cell works towards addressing gender-based violence and provides socio-legal help to women in need through multifaceted strategies like pro-bono socio-legal help, counselling, immediate response helpline, paralegal training and awareness campaigns.

  • People from different sections of society (community, leaders, panchayat)  say no to all forms of violence
  • Providing support to survivors of gendered violence
  • Creating more feminist options in supporting resolution for survivors
  • Hello Sakhi Helpline : The Hello Sakhi Helpline is a 24/7 telephone line that runs across Kutch for survivors of violence to report a case, receive immediate support in a crisis, and resolve cases through socio-legal counselling. This is the curative part of KMVS’ approach to prevent gender based violence in Kutch which begins with the Hello Sakhi Helpline. The helpline has been allotted a toll free number by the Telecom Authority and is attended by trained personnel. This helpline room is housed at the Women’s Police Station in Bhuj. The call handlers listen to the caller and record the details in a prescribed format. After which they initiate appropriate action keeping in view the nature of the complaint. The survivor is asked to come to their nearest Safety Centre. In case of an urgent crisis, they are connected to the 181 helpline or asked to go to the nearest Sakhi One Stop Centre in hospitals to seek shelter. If necessary, counsellors or paralegal cadres at each block are connected with the survivor to figure out her specific needs and take appropriate actions. Otherwise the survivor is asked to visit a Safety Centre in their block where a counsellor looks into their case. The other parts of this structure include:
  • Safety Centre - Safety Centres are the block level offices where survivors can meet the counsellors regarding their cases, stay for short periods to escape violence, and where mediation is done between the survivors and perpetrator parties to arrive at a solution. As of today, there are Safety Centres in 6 blocks of Kutch. All the socio-legal counselling processes are done here, including a room called Killol for children to wait. From time to time a mental health counsellor also speaks to survivors to help them heal.
  • Collaborations : 
    • 181 helpline number
    • Mahila Police Cell, Gujarat Police
    • Women & Child Department
    • Sakhi One Stop Centre, G. K. Hospital

 

  • Paralegal Cadre : Paralegals are at the core of this intervention to prevent gender-based violence. Most of the cases handled at the Safety Centres are referred by paralegals from their communities. Community volunteers are trained on gender & society, constitution, law enforcement, judicial structure, women’s laws, interpersonal communication and ways of working, before being certified as paralegals. Currently a cadre of 500 paralegals trained by us are spread all across Kutch working from their communities to provide survivors a safe space to talk about the violence faced by them, and encourage them to report it. From amongst the 500 paralegals, a core group of 50 are selected. This core group of 50 paralegals are trained on more advanced topics by experienced lawyers, twice a month. Overall a dense network of paralegals is established to catalyse reporting of cases and mobilise swift action to end violence.
  • Awareness 
    • Awareness and community outreach drives are regularly held to sensitise the community about violence against women, issues around it and the Hello Sakhi helpline. This is done through the quarterly Safety Campaigns which are part of our broad objective of a Safe District. Apart from these, door-to-door visits and faria (neighbourhood) meetings are held regularly by our paralegal cadre and counsellors to talk about violence, laws related to it, discuss case studies and responses to crises, build interpersonal relations with women and hence a safe space for them to report cases. This is how most of the cases handled by the legal cell are reported. 
    • The Legal Cell also conducts trainings and workshops for other nonprofits, corporates, educational institutes, government offices, factories, etc on Gender, Sexual Harassment at workplace, PoCSO. Team members of the Legal Cell also serve as external members of the Internal Complaints Committees of these places where they conduct trainings
  • 800+ paralegals trained
  • 10000+ cases reported 
  • 5 Salamati / Safety Centres
  • 500 Villages with safety campaigns and awareness programs
  • Collaborations : DLSA,One stop crisis centre, Mahila Ashrams, Women & Child Development Department Institutions working on mental health issues