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| Tasneem Sara |
What is AWAG India all about?
Ahmedabad Women’s Action
Group- AWAG (acronym means noise) has been consistently working to protest all
kinds of violence against women. AWAG is all about “Women”- Women rights, women
equality and women empowerment. As a not-for- profit organisation, AWAG aims to
support women who are victims of domestic violence by helping them assert their
individuality. We at AWAG, strategize towards women
survival and assist them to get social justice and equality.
Your key areas are to
empower women against Domestic Violence. What does “empowerment” mean and
imply?
At AWAG, we provide holistic service of a full cycle from
counselling to empowerment. When a woman seeks help at AWAG, we ensure that she
walks out dignified, healthy and economically independent. AWAG believes to
raise awareness as the first step towards empowerment. A woman in need is
assisted and made aware of her rights, psychological and legal counselling is
provided to her that boasts her self-confidence. In the midst of all her
personal struggles, police complaints and law suits, AWAG trains the woman to
stitch and sew and become self-employed. However, for us, empowerment implies
to self-awareness among women; income generation can only come later.
A lot of times, education
is built towards literacy. There is seldom attention towards the sensitisation
of individuals against violence since a young age. What are your thoughts on
this?
Unfortunately, the term “education” has been narrowed down to degree
and knowledge, wisdom and curriculum. The real essence of education i.e. deeper
understanding, values and beliefs, respecting individuals and sensitising
individuals against violence is most of the times ignored and put away. Partly,
the patriarchal system that has been running down since generations is to be
blamed for this mindset. A woman also is so affected by the patriarchal
hierarchy that she thinks it is her fate to tolerate violence. Had education
shed light to this, there would be awareness and people’s mindset would have changed
since a very young age. Both men and women need to understand gender equality.
Sadly no education curriculum involves it right from the beginning.
Could you share any
positive anecdotes/ milestones in your work so far?
Helping and reaching out even a single woman is an achievement for
AWAG. Over the years the organisation has touches lives of thousands of women
and helped them survive. We have shared below one of our success stories:
Shabnam (name changed) is now forty years old. Her mother had died
when she was just three. Her father was a coolie at the Ahmedabad railway
station who worked hard day and night. Shabnam was raised by her brother and
his wife. At the age of fourteen, she was married to man who was 10 years elder
to her. Shabnam’s husband used to sell onions in the day time and was
reasonably well-to-do. However, he had another business which he ran at night
which was – gathering people and showing blue films at nominal cost. Each day,
he would close down the business by 4 am in the morning and get home. Being
affected by the blue films, his sexual desire would surge up and he would do
all sorts of sexual violence on Shabnam. When Shabnam could not tolerate any
further, she got back to her maternal home to seek help form her father and
brother. But her brother’s wife thought that Shabnam was having an affair with
some other young boy and thus she runs away from her husband’s home. Scared and
victimised Shabnam had not told about her husband’s activities to anyone at her
home. For six months, Shabnam did to and fro from her husband’s house to her
own and each time she was sent back forcibly. When she could not take anymore,
Shabnam jumped into the Kankaria lake- Ahmedabad and attempted a suicide.
Luckily, a local vendor jumped after her and Shabnam was saved.
Eventually, Shabnam’s father brought her to AWAG and asked us to
explain her to stop acting in this way and get back to her husband. At AWAG,
Shabnam underwent psychological and legal counselling. At that time, through
the counselling process, it was found that she underwent sexual and domestic
violence. The legal counsellor at AWAG, fought for a divorce and amidst all
this the organisation provided her economic empowerment through local sewing.
When Shabnam was totally out of depression and fears and her legal
case was a victory, she decided to stick to AWAG for economic empowerment.
Together with other violence victims and Shabnam, AWAG founded AWAG-EKTA
INDUSTRIAL CO-OPERATIVE in the year 1992. Over the years, AWAG EKTA has turned
into one of the biggest social enterprises. It now produces its own garment
range under the name – EK AWAG and has a store to showcase the valued products.
Shabnam is still active with AWAG EKTA. She lives in her father’s
house and comes to work everyday. Presently, 270 people are members of this
co-operative, all of them domestic violence survivals.
What do you see as being
the most common reasons for Domestic Violence?
A couple of things add up to domestic violence. Also several reasons
are interlinked with it. One of the most common reasons is again the mindset of
patriarchal hierarchy. As a result of this, both men and women think that a
male is the ultimate decision maker and has a right to dominate the other
gender. A female too considers this mentality as normal and thinks that it is her
duty to obey or compel to the wishes of the opposite gender. Another most
common and obvious reason for domestic violence is alcoholism. Sadly, this
reason of domestic violence is prevailing in all socio-economic sectors of the
society. Alcoholism in lower economic class is intertwined with the issues of
poverty and financial crunches that lead to domestic violence in most of the
cases. Other reasons for Domestic Violence are obvious ones such as lack of
employment opportunities, improper education, lack of awareness and sensitivity
towards gender equality.
What are AWAG’s plans/
activities like, in the coming days?
As the social, political and economic scenario is changing in India,
so should the work pattern and approach for organisations like AWAG that deal
with women’s issues. Sticking to its vision and mission, the organisation
wishes to go to a next level by digging interconnected issues and challenges
for the next generation of young women. Currently AWAG is actively exploring
areas of health and sanitation for women, and in near future we would target
short-term and long term goals to deal with issues such as Women and Cancer,
Environment and Women’s issues, Women’s Empowerment, Mental health awareness in
Adolescents etc. so to make a woman totally independent in the true sense.
Links to our work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4koypqN6P9Y (This video will give highlights of our work)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzNDCU5HK_U
(This is one of our current project)