Training at Dilaasa

Training at Dilaasa is aimed at improving the response of hospital staff to women facing domestic violence. The training programmes such as gender sensitization training of the entire staff, are conducted mainly for training of health professional i.e; doctors, nurses, social workers at the hospital in screening women patients reporting for treatment in various department of the hospital. The training activities have now been expanded to five hospitals across the city namely:-

1. Bhabha Hospital (Bandra)
2. Bhabha Hospital (Kurla)
3. M. T. Agarwal Hospital (Mulund)
4. Cooper Hospital (Juhu)
5. Rajawadi Hospital (Ghatkopar)

These trainings are conducted by trained hospital staff with support from CEHAT staff.

Methods:

• An Orientation module that aims to develop an understanding of domestic violence as healthcare issue and role of healthcare providers in responding to patients.
• An Follow-up module that aims at building skills in screening women for domestic violence and also provides an understanding about cycle of violence and specific needs of women living in violent homes.

Training with Community based Volunteers on Domestic Violence

The women who had approached Dilaasa had expressed that a support initiatives need to be made available at the community level. One community based organization (CBO), Navjeet Community Centre was identified which is a slum in Bandra.

In the first phase of the training a series of trainings were conducted in order to create a deeper understanding on the issue of domestic violence. In the second phase of training, the community volunteers were to develop counselling skills in order to reach out to individual women. The challenge was about developing a methodology that the participants are comfortable with as well as highlighting the importance of one to one counselling. Case studies related to their daily lives were developed and participants were encouraged to get into the role of a counsellor. Most of the principles, values and techniques related to counselling were woven around the case studies itself. Issues discussed during the training were about, principles of feminist counselling, values, of a counsellor, techniques used in feminist counselling, skills in counselling and the like. All these issues were developed around the perspective of feminist ideology.

An counselling centre wherein women can seek services outside of their community is. CBOs interested in training their volunteers as para-counsellors on the issue of gender based violence will be identified for further training.