Vanangana: Tackling Violence Against Women and Children

Abstract

Violence is a major part of the lives of many Indian women. In the strongly patriarchal society the situation of women differs in the different castes but subordination and violence are a common motif in all their lives. Vanangana is an organization working to empower rural women in the Chitrakoot district of Uttar Pradesh India. The organization emerged in 1993 when a group of rural women with particular technical skills grouped themselves to form collectives through the efforts of the Mahila Samakhya Program which aims to empower women through education. Vanangana mainly deals with the following types of cases: domestic violence; dowry harassment; sexual harassment; maintenance custody and guardianship; and child sexual abuse. Moreover some of the short-term needs and goals of Vanangana include training and capacity building; documentation; development/collection of material; networking; and developing regular systems. Some of its long-term goals are developing the NGO as a legal resource and documentation center; establishing the NGO law core group as paralegal workers; working out a formalized system of following up of cases at the court level; and developing a support structure at the village level.