The noise of yelling and screaming, accompanied with a clatter of a leather belt hitting a human being, were common sounds that the neighborhood had grown used to as a routine in some parts of the pristine hills surrounding Pune City of Maharashtra. There was almost a fixed protocol that was followed as after the cries had died down, the women in the neighborhood gathered to help the victim woman nurse her bruises but never once did they question her fate because almost every day, one woman or the other seemed to have the bad omen of suffering that fate in the hands of her husband and her in-laws.
But that evening, during the lockdown imposed on account of the Covid-19 Virus, a group of three women quickly assembled and gathered courage and knocked on the door while the yelling and screaming was gathering its pace. By knocking on the door, they startled both the victim and the tormentor. There was a deafening silence for a moment. The women at the door knocked again. A man in his early thirties opened the door while holding a belt in his hand. The women began by asking him why he was beating his wife. Too embarrassed, the man stepped out of the house and walked away. They went behind him, as the neighborhood stepped out of their closely cluttered homes to see the unfolding drama. He ran into the darkness of the fields.
The women returned back to find the victim women surrounded by other women of the neighborhood and some men. The victim of domestic violence was very angry at the group of 3 women for ‘interfering’ in their household matter and for embarrassing her husband; and questioning if they had never been beaten by their husbands. In some places in the district, the objection to the intervention also became about caste – women of a caste interfering in households of another caste. Undeterred, roughly 21,000 women intervened in over 6000 cases of domestic violence in the district and brought about a quiet social revolution in over three months by implementing the Domestic Violence Act of 2005, as part of the Beti-Bachao Beti-Phadhao campaign.
Dr. Indrani Misra, a leading Pediatrician found an opportunity to broach this sensitive issue of domestic violence with her husband, Ayush Prasad a young IAS officer posted as Chief Executive Officer, Zila Parishad, Pune. She spoke rather passionately about the shadow pandemic during a walk in their garden and told him that authorities in Australia had made arrangements for women suffering from domestic violence to stay in hotels. Later that evening this was posted as message by Ayush on a Watsapp group of elected Zilha Parishad members asking if there was an increase in domestic violence in the peri-urban and rural areas of the district. There was no response for a day. The message was posted yet again on the following day. Several members were either unaware as their focus was more on infrastructural developmental works rather than social issues. Some opined that there was no such problem in Pune District. The same day, Home Minister of Maharashtra, Anil Deshmukh posted a video on social media warning against any form of domestic violence.
Impressed by the work of ASHA workers during and before the pandemic, Ayush thought of taking forward the vision of state government and effectively implementing the Domestic Violence Act, 2005. He considered building a voluntary force of women in each ward of the Gram Panchayat and in townships and housing societies to prevent and render support to victims of domestic violence. Accordingly, a three-member team, consisting of elected member in a panchayati raj body, the aanganwardi sevika of the woman & child welfare department and a woman leader in the self-help group in the village was constituted in each ward. They were trained through a series of zoom calls. WhatsApp groups were created at the village, cluster of villages, taluka and district levels to give them a sense of community as they were geographically dispersed and the lockdown hindered group interactions. They were instructed to work as an extension to women protection officers in each taluka who were recruited during the previous decade.
The next step was to utilize the media to convey a few messages. While answering a question to the local press about the initiative, Ayush responded by saying that “those who torment women during the lockdown would be institutionally quarantined”, a departure from the Domestic Violence Act 2005 where the victim is shifted to a safe location. The news caught the imagination of the people during the event-less days of the lockdown and saw its ‘15 minutes of fame’ in form of memes featuring wives warning their husbands of their possible institutional quarantine. Senior political leaders, including Member of Parliament, Supriya Sule held a Facebook LIVE session on the issue and over 5 lakh persons attended it. The news in media and social media placed the attention on the issue of domestic violence and raised public awareness about this sensitive issue. It also motivated thousands of women volunteers in each village to work more diligently on this issue as they felt there were part of a larger mission to bring about a social revolution.
During the last six months and several thousand documented and undocumented interventions later, a safe environment for women has been created for women in their homes – a place where most of them not only live, but also work and it is the core of their social interactions. Many women have narrated that they have found strength to voice their concerns, without the fear of being physically assaulted. A small but significant change for equality has begun from the home!
What a young, dynamic and visionary officer like Ayush Prasad could do is a wonderful example of small but significant and scalable steps that civil servants can take to make-it-happen despite all the problems and limitations. Such officers also demonstrate that media can be leveraged and politicians could be taken into confidence to convey positive messages that can lead to social transformation.
Anil Swarup has served as the head of the Project Monitoring Group, which is currently under the Prime Minister’s Office. He has also served as Secretary, Ministry of Coal and Secretary, Ministry of School Education.
