“Women stay because the fear of leaving is far greater than the fear of staying, but they will leave when the fear of staying is far greater than the fear of leaving.” - Anonymous
Kiran Chawla (name changed) was married for four years. Every night her husband came back home, drunk. He often slapped her, pulled her hair and even threatened to kill her. One year after marriage, she thought things might change for the better when she gave birth to a son. But the violence continued, harming even her child. She got herself a divorce. She now lives with her son, but continues to be haunted by memories of times she narrowly escaped death at the hands of her husband.
Domestic violence causes far more pain than the visible marks of physical abuse. It is devastating to be abused by someone you love. For many years, women have silently suffered severe atrocities at the hands of men fearing they would otherwise be condemned and ostracized by society. Unfortunately, most women accept this as their destiny and forego their right to raise their voice against this malpractice committed against them. The lack of an appropriate justice system only aggravated their agony.
The Domestic Violence Act addresses various issues related to women and domestic violence. This Act came into existence when the Lawyers Collective released their report “Staying Alive” in 2005, which highlighted the enormity of the physical, mental and sexual abuse that women face in their domestic sphere.
This act is unique in many ways. It clearly identifies violence as emotional, physical, sexual and economical. Moreover, the act does not restrict itself to domestic relations in the marital context but also extends itself to live in relationships, relationships in the nature of adoption and joint family. Most importantly, it is victim oriented and does not aim to penalize the perpetrators of violence through fines or imprisonments, but only when they do not follow the dictates of the court. It also addresses matters related to custody of children and entitles the mother to legitimate custody of the child if he or she is less than five years of age.
Priyanka Sarkar, Communications and Knowledge Manager, PACS Program, points out: “The evidence of physical violence can be erased easily and so it becomes difficult to put up a case on these grounds. Therefore these cases are put on fast track so that justice is imparted to victims in time. For this reason, the government has also appointed various NGOs that help in settling matters outside the court by mediating between family members and the victims.”
Factors like social stigma and invasion of private domestic life still play in the minds of women and so they hesitate to file a case under the DV Act. A lot of the women simply resort to the act as a way to avoid filing a divorce. Even though at times matters have been settled in the court, the husband has refused to pay monetary compensation to his wife or provide for an appropriate shelter for her to live in post separation. The absence of follow ups after initial outcomes and counseling, reduced the faith that women had in the Ac t. As a result of these factors, a lot of the efforts ended in failures.
Friday, April 16, 2010
THE BEAT BOX OF LIFE
They say music is food for life. It is not only an important part of our culture, our past and present, but also helps building relationships between individuals and determines their relationship to the world around, thereby shaping their attitudes and beliefs. The “Music Basti” program for children, is a reflection of this strong belief in the power of music to understand and access the world around us.
Music Basti aims at creating cultural and social awareness for “children at risk”. Children at risk are those who live and work on the streets and face a series of problems that are interconnected, including a physically unsafe environment to live in. Most NGOs primarily provided accommodation, food and clothing to these children, where institutionalised development programs often did not have the capacity for any cultural and recreational activities.
Keeping this in mind, the Music Basti program was started in 2008, by the Integrated Development Educational Association (IDEA), supported by The Youth Parliament (YP) Foundation and Aman Biradri, as part of their “Dil Se” program to uplift the dignity of street children. Founder and Project Coordinator, Faith Gonsalves says, “ Music Basti seeks to use music as a tool of personal empowerment for children who may be runaways, homeless, living in slums , or streets, in shelters or in rehabilitation centers. Our programs are geared towards social and cultural awareness and child rights based education.”
Apart from honing the musical skills of these children, the primary objective of this program is to enlighten them about child rights, human rights, life skills, gender equality and other social issues. This also helps to engage and empower the young music community in Delhi, by gearing them towards social activism and change in the lives of children at risk. The program is designed in such a way that it does not fall back on a child’s ability to read or write, but emphasizes on their sense of rhythm, knowledge about instruments, their vocal tonality, music appreciation skills and how much they gauge through music.
Faith says, “While choosing the volunteers and musicians for this program, we ensure that they are committed, enthusiastic and open to learning themselves. These children are aged between 3 to 12 years and often do not understand the process that they are a part of. The volunteers must understand the background and learning needs of these children. For this, we conduct workshops for them, where we train them to recognize, value, support and encourage these young talents”.
Sumeet Singh, a volunteer with the program adds, “The volunteer training sessions are really eye opening. We discuss about different notions, values and our opinions. This helps in broadening our own minds and developing our perspectives. To know that we play such an important role in making these children better and more capable human beings, is truly fulfilling”.
Music Basti however is not established as an independent NGO and works majorly in collaboration with other NGOs, organizations, educational and cultural units. They believe that establishing it as an NGO is a tedious process involving too much legality that leads to nothing but a wastage of time and defeats their main purpose of social upliftment. They attain their funding from partnerships, sponsors and donors whose contributions are acknowledged through multiple annual public programs, print and online publications, collaborative programs and media coverage.
This however does not ensure a steady flow of resources which is why they are currently working on a model that enhances income flow, at the same time promoting their project at various forums, looking for collaborations that will support and sustain it in the upcoming years. Being supported by a credible organization like IDEA, facilitates this process for them.
Till date, the project has conducted over 40 workshops, with over 200 children, and 25 sessions for volunteers on training and skill building, and have established three centers in Delhi, at Okhla, Kashmere Gate and Shastri Nagar. It has built relationships with organizations like The YP Foundation, Aman Biradri, Bridge Music Academy and the American Centre and has organized innumerous performances and concerts by the children and the renowned musicians.
Sunil, a student of the program, exclaims, “I always look forward to the workshops. I really enjoy the song writing exercises, the games and the lectures. It has made me aware of so many things around me”.
Today, Music Basti’s primary goal is to expand their outreach, develop a well defined musical program and involving more people in the project, so that they can make a difference to the lives of more children like Sunil.
Music Basti aims at creating cultural and social awareness for “children at risk”. Children at risk are those who live and work on the streets and face a series of problems that are interconnected, including a physically unsafe environment to live in. Most NGOs primarily provided accommodation, food and clothing to these children, where institutionalised development programs often did not have the capacity for any cultural and recreational activities.
Keeping this in mind, the Music Basti program was started in 2008, by the Integrated Development Educational Association (IDEA), supported by The Youth Parliament (YP) Foundation and Aman Biradri, as part of their “Dil Se” program to uplift the dignity of street children. Founder and Project Coordinator, Faith Gonsalves says, “ Music Basti seeks to use music as a tool of personal empowerment for children who may be runaways, homeless, living in slums , or streets, in shelters or in rehabilitation centers. Our programs are geared towards social and cultural awareness and child rights based education.”
Apart from honing the musical skills of these children, the primary objective of this program is to enlighten them about child rights, human rights, life skills, gender equality and other social issues. This also helps to engage and empower the young music community in Delhi, by gearing them towards social activism and change in the lives of children at risk. The program is designed in such a way that it does not fall back on a child’s ability to read or write, but emphasizes on their sense of rhythm, knowledge about instruments, their vocal tonality, music appreciation skills and how much they gauge through music.
Faith says, “While choosing the volunteers and musicians for this program, we ensure that they are committed, enthusiastic and open to learning themselves. These children are aged between 3 to 12 years and often do not understand the process that they are a part of. The volunteers must understand the background and learning needs of these children. For this, we conduct workshops for them, where we train them to recognize, value, support and encourage these young talents”.
Sumeet Singh, a volunteer with the program adds, “The volunteer training sessions are really eye opening. We discuss about different notions, values and our opinions. This helps in broadening our own minds and developing our perspectives. To know that we play such an important role in making these children better and more capable human beings, is truly fulfilling”.
Music Basti however is not established as an independent NGO and works majorly in collaboration with other NGOs, organizations, educational and cultural units. They believe that establishing it as an NGO is a tedious process involving too much legality that leads to nothing but a wastage of time and defeats their main purpose of social upliftment. They attain their funding from partnerships, sponsors and donors whose contributions are acknowledged through multiple annual public programs, print and online publications, collaborative programs and media coverage.
This however does not ensure a steady flow of resources which is why they are currently working on a model that enhances income flow, at the same time promoting their project at various forums, looking for collaborations that will support and sustain it in the upcoming years. Being supported by a credible organization like IDEA, facilitates this process for them.
Till date, the project has conducted over 40 workshops, with over 200 children, and 25 sessions for volunteers on training and skill building, and have established three centers in Delhi, at Okhla, Kashmere Gate and Shastri Nagar. It has built relationships with organizations like The YP Foundation, Aman Biradri, Bridge Music Academy and the American Centre and has organized innumerous performances and concerts by the children and the renowned musicians.
Sunil, a student of the program, exclaims, “I always look forward to the workshops. I really enjoy the song writing exercises, the games and the lectures. It has made me aware of so many things around me”.
Today, Music Basti’s primary goal is to expand their outreach, develop a well defined musical program and involving more people in the project, so that they can make a difference to the lives of more children like Sunil.
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