| Women's Emancipation and Development Trust believes that developing women and children is nothing but developing the whole society.
We find that rigid forms of outdated value systems subordinate women in the community and the family and look upon women as a commodity to transfer from the mother's family to the bridegroom's family. These attitudes lead to the problems listed under prioritised issues below. Transformation of the value system and preparation of the mindset of these communities are urgently need. If we equip the women to address their problems themsleves, they will find successful ways to build their own empowerment. Female Infanticide, feticide, eve teasing, rape with the assurance of marriage, dowry harassment, separation, divorce, domestic violence are some of the common issues that affects the lives of women.
When a woman faces family violence, she suffers deep mental depression and war in her heart. She is injured and hurt in her physical structure and endures pain in her soul. She becomes hopeless as well as helpless. She needs mental peace, physical rest, institutional care away from her home and health services. If she wishes to be separate from her husband, she also needs legal aid. Women's Emancipation and Development Trust launched the 'Family Counselling and Legal Aid Centre' in 1994 to mitigate these agonies of rural women in Chellampatti block. The following are the major issues taken up by the Centre. a. Denial of birth right - female infanticide and feticides. On receipt of the petitions from the victims, the staff team of the Counselling Centre will make detailed enquiries and write a letter to the offenders inviting them for amicable settlement.
If the response is negative, our legal team visits the offender's home and discusses the issues with the family members. For mutual agreements, dates are fixed and counselling sessions organized for amicable settlements out of court. Constant persuasion by our team changes the attitude of the unrepentant. In many cases, separated wives have regained their husbands by counselling sessions. Rural people are perverse and often repudiate their wives on petty issues. Nevertheless, we reproach these people for their ignorance. Due to our success in solving these issues with this friendly approach, the centre has become popular in Usilampatti Taluk and even the local police station and judiciary have appreciated our endeavours. Even complicated cases are disposed off quickly at no cost and people need not to go to police and courts of law and file petitions and spend their valuable money and time unnecessarily. Rarely some cases are out of our purviews. Rural people may not accede to our suggestions. In such cases, we move the court of law as appellants on behalf of the victims. The cost of suits will be shared by the victims and organization to some extent. A qualified counsellor and advocate will offer counselling for the women and children at risk and will rehabilitate them to bring peace in their lives. We also provide a short stay to the victims when the issue is severe and send them back home only after we can ensure normalcy. Annually 50 -100 families are in need of such counselling and more than 25 cases needed legal assistance to move the court of law. We have cases registered in the Family Counselling and Legal Aid Centre and a range of Case Studies if you would like further detailed information about our work. Mr.PS.Dharmaneethi & Ms.N.Logamani |
