There has been a widening discourse on women empowerment in India over the past few years. How far has India come towards chasing this goal? How is India placed currently in terms of providing safe havens to its women in distress?
During the lockdown driven by the pandemic, the National Commission for Women recorded 370 complaints in just 18 days between March 23 and April 10, 2020 —123 of which were domestic abuse cases, and 117 related to the Rights to live with dignity, particularly emotional abuse. As per data from National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), one-third of Indian women were subjected to some form of violence, of which only 14% ever brought it up or sought help.
There have been a few initiatives and schemes over the last 20 years by the government attempting to provide some safe havens to such survivors, destitute women as well as elderly women with no place to stay. The Swadhar Greh Scheme since 2016 is one such initiative to provide shelter to distressed homeless women- whether victims of violence, abuse, harassment or driven by poverty and/or old age.
The concept of Swadhar homes has been in place for over 20 years now, but the increasing decline witnessed in number of Swadhar Grehs is worrisome, as is the drastic decline in budgetary support. The objective of this paper is thus to analyse the extent of violence against women using data from the National Crime Records Bureau and comparing it with budgetary support for protecting women in distress, and to understand the implications of absence of measures for protection of women.
Women empowerment must not just be a term, it needs to become reality. This will be a herculean task if the scheme designed to help women in distress is itself in distress!
