By Saiyed Danish, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Ashray Welfare and Charitable Society (AWCS) organized an event on legal awareness for women belonging to SC/ST and minority communities living near Pant Nagar and Nizamuddin in the community hall of Pant Nagar neighbourhood.
Every month, the organization invites experts on a range of issues concerning the women at the centre who study English and computer and learn the nuances and among skills like candle making etc. The motive behind these initiatives is to uplift the womenfolk and arm them with a sense of confidence, self-sufficiency and productivity.
The February 20 event focused on legal awareness of women on issues concerning their safety and security and serious and complex cases involving marriage related grievances like divorce, domestic violence and ill-treatment by husband or in-laws. To speak on the occasion AWCS had invited Advocate Nandita Rao, a High Court lawyer who addressed a hall stuffed with women waiting for the deliberation to start. She spoke extensively on the question of divorce.
“If there is a case of violence or misbehaving with any of you then you should first go the women cell and register your complaint there. In case you want to register a case then that women cell will contact lawyers like me and inform about the development. However in any case do not ever give money to the police for they won’t work in your favour even after that as they are of patriarchal mindset,” she shared with the attendees of the programme.
Speaking on the domestic violence issues she said, “Sometimes you don’t want the culprit to be punished and favour a settlement to save the embarrassment going the extreme way could bring you. For instance, cases like a drunken husband mistreating wife or a brawl among the relatives ending up in violence of men on women, demand an out of court settlement. In that case you simply have to inform the police you need a settlement and it will be reached at.”
Advocate Rao also shared with the women the privileges of filing a case under Domestic Violent Act 2005. “If you don’t want a divorce then you can ask the court to make your pay for the maintenance and take care of your well-being financially. Always remember that women always have the right to keep the child with her until her case is sub-judice,” she said.
While interacting with minority women on the same subject she said that earlier getting divorced was difficult for them but now amendment in the Nikahnama or ‘marriage document’ in South Asian countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh have empowered women there. “A Muslim woman can now give herself divorce on behalf of husband in case the latter tortures her mentally and physically and still not ready to divorce her,” he told.
The interactive session witnessed women asking questions to seek a solution of the problems in their lives. A woman shared that her sister’s husband lives with some other woman and that her sister wants the custody of the child and maintenance sum so that she could carry on independently. Another woman asked how far a society can accept a third marriage while citing her own case that she underwent two unsuccessful marriages. Rao told her that that he must be bold enough to go ahead with the third and tell the society that it is she who has suffered at the hands of men and so men should feel bad about it.
Present at the event was ACWS co-ordinator Kritika Sisodiya who was exhilarated to see women listening to the guest speaker with rapt attention and also sharing light moments of laughter in between.
“We teach women to be self-dependent in a patriarchal world. All the women who come to learn different skills here are hope of the women of tomorrow. As Advocate Rao said that a woman’s best friend is her career as it makes her independent, this is exactly what we teach them here, to be independent,” she said.
Mohammad Aamir from ANHAD said, “ACWS and ANHAD are committed to help women realizing their dreams and free them from the shackles of male-chauvinism in the society. We have shared common platform on the issue of 33% reservation for women, minority women rights and many others. Such programmes are the nerve centre of our democracy and continued battle to save secularism.”