Social Justice

KEY POINTS

• Intimate partner violence (IPV) – Violent acts, at the hands of a husband or a partner.
• These stem from the belief that women who don’t obey or don’t perform their set gender roles deserve to be beaten. 
• The WHO estimates that almost one-third of all women who have been in a relationship have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner, which affects their physical and mental well-being. 

Importance of SHGs

• As criminal justice solutions have largely been inaccessible to socially precarious women, a more inclusive alternative is to have collective-based resolution mechanisms.
• SHGs are the most widely present collectives across regions.
• India has experimented with many models of community dispute resolution mechanisms

a)     The Nari Adalats (women courts) in various States

b)     Women’s Resource Centres (Rajasthan)

c)      Shalishi (West Bengal)

d)     Mahila Panchayats (Delhi)

• Several NGOs have co-opted these models so that women can resolve cases of violence without getting entangled in tedious legal processes.

Challenges for SHGs

• Collectives of women such as SHGs need adequate investment for building their capacities.
• Mediation of IPV requires specialised structures to avoid manipulation by kinship relations and political affinities.
• Not all groups of women become safe spaces to discuss violence.
• SHGs must first become enabling spaces where the economic and social concerns of women are stated as priorities.
• To enable women to recognise that violence is unacceptable, there must be investment in specific training, and gender analysis processes.
• SHGs are mostly seen as administrative entities. Their social role can be enhanced to tackle the widespread problem of IPV.

Review please