KOLAR

-Kuteera Shelter for Women

The years of our work with issues related to domestic and personal violence that took an institutional form with Angala, the crisis centre in 1993 further led to the setting up of Kuteera (The Refuge) in 2001. Kuteera, a safe and secure shelter for women victims / survivors of violence is located at Vemgal, in Kolar, about 60 kms away from the city of Bangalore. This is a space where women can heal and refind their strengths to live independently, creatively and to lead a life free from violence. Located in a rural setting, apart from networking with women’s groups in the different villages, specifically around the issue of violence against women, the shelter has also attempted to focus on and incorporate practices of organic cultivation as a way to self sustainable communities.

MANDYA & RAMNAGARA

In Mandya and Ramnagara, Vimochana engages in impactful advocacy campaigns against the concerning decline in sex ratios, particularly addressing the skewed child sex ratio in Mandya (933:1000) compared to the Karnataka state average (943:1000, as per the 2011 census). Despite Mandya’s economic prosperity, reflective of its role in the Green Revolution, gender discrimination persists. The prosperity, driven by the Green Revolution, has shifted economic benefits more towards men, making agriculture less viable for small farmers, contributing to the increasing liabilities of female children. The mechanization of agriculture has led to a growing segment of unemployed male youth, for whom demanding dowry has become a significant source of income, perpetuating harassment and violence against women.

Vimochana’s campaign against sex-selective abortions, initiated in 2001, addresses the implications of female foeticide and challenges the misuse of reproductive technologies by certain sections of the medical profession. The campaign is centered in Mandya, where Vimochana systematically collects data, studies the PCPNDT act, and aligns itself with the national campaign initiated by CEHAT and Masum. The goal is to ensure the effective implementation of the PCPNDT Act, holding authorities accountable and prosecuting unregistered clinics, in alignment with the Supreme Court’s directives recognizing the need to curb illegal activities. Vimochana’s work aims to unravel the gender-based inequalities intensified by unscrupulous and unregulated use of reproductive technologies, contributing to a more informed and responsive approach to address the challenges faced by women in the region.

Our intervention

• With the focus on the district of mandya as also some work in the city of Bangalore, our intervention have revolved around;
• Holding workshops with media professionals and doctors on the issues of ethics in relation to media practice, law and the media.
• Lobbying with the state appropriate authority which is the relevant authority directly responsible to oversee the implementation of the PC&PNDT Act to take action against anyone found violating the Act and stepping up pressure on them to regulate and monitor the genetic clinics.
• Interfacing with the state women’s commission strongly urging them to address the issues of indiscreet mushrooming if scan centres which in the name of providing diagnostic services have become centres of abuse. Unrestrained scanning of pregnant women advised by doctors provides an opportunity for sex selection and termination.
• Creating a network of groups and activists working with issues of violence against women, children and human rights who will take imitative to start the campaign in their respective states and lobby at the national level.
  Lobbying with the members of parliaments to bring about relevant changes in the Act as and when needed .
• Conducting random checks and decoy programmes in those scanning centres where we believe sex selection is practiced , and campaigning for the cancellation of licenses of unregistered and illegal centres. Due to our constant pressure and efforts we have been made a member of the state Appropriate Authority that is empowered to conduct such random checks and ingestions.
• Bringing out a comprehensive report on the practice of sex selection abortion in mandya focusing political economy of the district that is among the richest districts in the state of Karnataka having been one of the beneficiaries of the Green revolution in agriculture.

During this period Vimochana Conduct several programmes and meetings with doctors, communities, politicians, students, anganawadi workers, health workers, Teachers and media to raise awareness about sex selective abortions

Our Initiative in Mandya include;

• Protests
• Raids
• Working with politicians
• Wall writing
• Women in black protests
• Public hearing
• Awareness workshop (For doctors, Health workers, Anganawadi workers, College stusents, NSS camps, SHG, Publics )
• Door to door data survey
• International Womens day Celebration
• Girl Child Day Celebrations’
• Publication