Action India- Women Law and Social Change

MAHILA PANCHAYAT

The concept of creating a gender just jurisprudence grew out of our experience of the last 25 years of working with women in the urban slums of Delhi. Women, Law and Social Change was conceived as an action-research project in 1994. Our strategy for intervention has been based on the mobilization of women to actively participate in the debates on the need for legislative reform in the process of social transformation.

The legal system and the state failed to deliver justice or resolve disputes abounding in a growing population in the metropolis. The crisis intervention strategy initiated by the Sabla Sangh was formalized by developing Mahila Panchayats. The strategy of crisis intervention was also carried forward to other women’s organisations working on domestic violence.

Working with the Government

The Delhi Commission for Women in Septemeber 2000 invited over 50 NGOs with a call to “Make Delhi Safe for Women”, with a four-point programme providing

Helpline
Legal counselling
Women’s support groups in the community
Shelters for battered women

Categories of Cases dealt by Mahila Panchayats: Verbal and emotional violence, divorce, demand for dowry, dowry retrieval, physical abuse due to alcoholism, sexual violence, extra marital affairs, bigamy, infertility, child custody, violence in live-in-relationships, sexual harassment in public place.

Structure: 25 Mahila Panchayat members across 6 hubs provide support to victims of violence and investigate and follow-up cases. At least 15 members attend the weekly panchayat hearing to ensure that the collective judgement is fair and impartial. In each hub around 4 cases are heard per week and 3 emergency cases are taken up.

Each panchayat consists of one hub coordinator, one paralegal and one facilitator. Master trainers are trained on the gender perspective on Gender Based Violence to promote feminist counselling and understanding women's rights to live with dignity in order to develop their perspective on Gender Equality and Legal Rights of Women.

Our Mahila Panchayats have demonstrated the importance of the community redressal mechanism as the first port of call for women to step up and speak out about domestic violence including intimate partner violence. The network of six Mahila Panchayats has greatly enhanced women's access to the legal justice system in accordance with the PWDVA, 2005. Community-level dispute resolution is seen as a strength of the Mahila Panchayats in their role as a women's support mechanism.

The DCW recognizes Action India’s work January 2001

The Delhi Commission for Women recognized the Mahila Panchayats as a strong mechanism to “Make Delhi Safe for Women”. The DCW appointed Action India to spearhead the process of replicating the programme with 13 NGOs and 16 CBOs in Delhi. The willingness and cooperation of the partner organizations made possible to form 54 women’s groups in one year in the process of formation of Mahila Panchayats. With inputs in gender training by our grassroots case workers, over 1180 women across the metropolis have understood discrimination and gained awareness of the subordination of women in a male dominated society.

Legal Rights Awareness

Building on this foundation, legal literacy was introduced by legal resource persons from Partners in Law and Development, Human Rights Law Network, Multiple Action Research Group and Lawyers Collective to train paralegal workers. This enabled the NGOs to start casework and strenghten their mahila panchayats. 12 NGOs and 4 CBOs have dealt with 1163 cases in this one year.
Action India’s role and responsibility in orienting 29 NGOs and CBOs and training their paralegal workers along with gender sensitization of panchayat members has been the major preoccupation of our Women and Law team in 2001. To coordinate this vast activity spread across the city as shown in the map of the NGO Network, an experienced MSW was recruited to undertake the training and expansion of Mahila Panchayats.
The DCW, while bringing together diverse groups of NGOs and CBOs provided us an opportunity to initiate a campaign network against violence against women, which was subsequently named KARVAN.

MAHILA PANCHAYAT

Working with the Government

Ongoing Projects

Mahila Panchayats

Domestic Workers Project

Women in Agriculture

Parwaz Adolescent Centre for Education

Youth And Men Engagement

Past Projects

The DCW recognizes Action India’s work January 2001

Legal Rights Awareness

Ongoing Projects

Past Projects

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