At least two out of three women are forced into sex, beaten and harmed in their life; in addition, thousands of adolescent girls wereexposed to physical, emotional and sexual violence. In addition, survivors often share their experiences of severe physical and psychological abuse. Based on National Family Health Survey, approximately 33% of married women and 16% of adolescent girls were being abused by an intimate partner (NFHS 4) (IIPS & ICF 2017)and with multiple intersection, socio-economic vulnerabilities such as marginalized, poorest, with no, or little education are at greater risks.According to the World HealthOrganization, “Intimate partner violence is one of the mostcommon forms of violence against women and includesphysical, sexual, and emotional abuse and controllingbehaviors by an intimate partner”
Indian Social Responsibility Network with the support of Abt Associates and SHOPS PLUS organized and facilitated a training workshop on “Family Planning and Intimate Partner Violence”for ASHA, AWW and outreach workers of Vikas Nagar and Uttam Nagar area on February 24TH 2021 at Samudayik Bhawan, Vikas Nagar, Delhi. Mr. Santosh Gupta CEO ISRN, Mr. Ashok Raisinghani, Ms. Mehak Mann and Ms. Jayashree Abt Association representatives were the speaker of the event.
In total 65participants showed their interest through physically participation taking COVID-19 precautions under the guidelines issued by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Out of which 13 were ASHA workers, 37 Anganwadi Workers and 15 outreach workers from Shiv Vihar, JJ colony and Vikas Nagar. The training focused on the impact on women’s health by providing universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services and counselling information. Empowering women through family planning has far sightedobjective, which covers Sustainable Development Goals mainly 3- good health and well-being, 4- Gender Education, 5- Gender Equality and 10- Reduce Inequalities. This training empowers women with building knowledge. Moreover,generating awareness over medium to control and reproductive choices through accessing contraceptive methods.
Mr. Sharad Jha initiated training with the welcome speech and shared the goal of programme“Increase women’s access to family planning information among men and women of reproductive age group and specifically women who were victims/survivors of intimate partner violence”. Further, the training was taken over by Ms. Mehak Mann, Abt Associates representative to discuss about sex & gender, survivors of violence comes from any age group, religion, racial group, socio-economic level, education background and sexual orientation steps taken against violence. Followed by Ms. Jayashree, who share her experiences in the form of case stories particularly emphasis on IPV and FM among ASHA, AWW and Outreach workers.
The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the situation whereviolence faced by women had seen an alarming increase with1,477 complaints of domestic violence recorded betweenMarch 25 and May 31, 2020. Therestricted movement due to lockdown have caused domestic zones tobecome breeding grounds for violence against women especially for intimate partner violence. Such casesof Intimate partner violence at home is often under-reported and not adequately addressed at proper forumswhich curtails human rights and further undermines the health, dignity, and security of the women.
The training emphasisis on two strategies ,First to strengthen the capacity of ASHA, AWW and outreach workers over Family Planning and Intimate Partner Violence and secondly is to respond to cases of violence, providing emotional support, helping women facing severe violence and link them through health facilities. The technical training was followed by open session for queries. Based on this training National Social Society (NSS) will pilot a community mobilization intervention to generate awareness and empower women and adolescent groups to prevent violence.
At the end of the training, Mr. Santosh Guptashared his reflections over FP/IPV and initiated the planning process of field intervention among local population through the various mediums like information dissemination, awareness programme and social media for spreading the helpline numberamong local population.
Helpline number- 1800 258 0001
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