Dilaasa and Point of View present

‘At The Crossroads’ इस मोड पर

Directed by Ipshita Maitra

About the film…

At the Crossroads follows the story of Meera, a woman admitted into a public hospital for attempted suicide. A concerned nurse, who believes Meera to be a survivor of domestic violence, introduces her to Dilaasa, a hospital based crisis center, that works on mitigating abuse by identifying and helping women who come to the hospital to treat various health issues that result from domestic violence. With the counselor’s help, Meera learns to handle her situation and make a fresh start. At the Crossroads focuses on the important role that health care professionals can play in stemming domestic violence. Since hospitals are often the first refuge for abused women, the steps that a health care professional takes can have a marked impact on situations involving familial or spousal abuse. The film also emphasizes the counselor’s role in helping transform the lives of survivors of domestic violence.

Read More

Hospital based Crisis Centre for Domestic Violence: The Dilaasa Model

This policy brief is addressed to all those individuals and groups who are in a position to influence policies and programmes at local, organizational as well as national level. The brief is based on the experience and the success of a hospital based Crisis Centres for women facing domestic violence in Mumbai - Dilaasa. It is a joint initiative of the MCGM and CEHAT, established to sensitise Health care providers and train them to understand domestic violence as a health issue. Besides training of Health care providers, the key function of Dilaasa is provision of psycho social support to women facing domestic violence. It has also received recognition from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as one of the best practices in Gender Mainstreaming. We hope that this document will inspire the promotion, replication and implementation of the Dilaasa model – a strategy that has been found to work... Download Policy Brief

Manual For Medical Examination Of Sexual Assault, CEHAT, 2010

This manual has been written based on the experiences of a pilot intervention for developing a comprehensive health care response to sexual assault in two public hospitals in Mumbai. This manual is an important contribution to strengthening the knowledge and understanding of providers in India on how to respond to sexual assault survivors. It should contribute to better care and better outcomes for victims/survivors, who are primarily women and children. The encounter with the health provider can contribute to the healing process or conversely can be an experience of revictimization. The more providers understand the issues surrounding sexual violence, and the psychological and physical needs of survivors and are able to provide the basic care and psychosocial support, and carry out a sensitive forensic examination when appropriate, the more likely they can help the survivor in the healing process. Where this is not possible, clear referral pathways should be established to ensure survivors can access the necessary care and support.Download Manual

Challenges in Domestic Violence Counselling : a casebook BY Sangeeta Rege; Padma Deosthali and Qudsiya Contractor

Counsellors : Chitra Joshi, Sangeeta Rege, Mrudula Sawant, Rashmi Thakker, Sanjana Chikhalkar, 2010

This case book presents 15 narratives bringing forth fairly common but some of the most complex real-life scenarios in the lives of women’s facing domestic violence. Each narrative has woven together the case scenario as it developed and counsellor’s response to the woman concerned to the unfolding of complex issues with ethics at the centre stage. The perspectives are that of counsellors as they grappled to resolve the ethical challenges involved.

Guidelines for Counselling: Women Facing Violence by Sangeeta Rege

These guidelines are primarily meant for enhancing skills and attitudes of those dealing with Violence against Women at the hospital setup but would be useful to others too. These guidelines provide a perspective on the issue and also has real life examples. These guidelines are developed from the feminist perspective the counselling would enable the women to understand the cause of violence lies external to them and the root of violence are based in patriarchy.

Guidelines for Health Professionals in Responding to Domestic Violence.

The guidelines describes the health consequences of domestic violence and the role of healthcare providers in address them. These guidelines are developed in english,hindi,marathi and gujrathi. English Guidelines Hindi Guidelines Marathi Guidelines Gujarati Guidelines

Chaukat Todun Baghtanna, Divekar Rashmi and Naik Pramila

"Chaukat Todun Baghtanna" is a small pictorial booklet developed which gives information on Domestic Violence. It also covers various types of violence and its effect on women's health. It has information on seeking help from public hospital and legal support. This booklet is useful for women who face domestic violence and others those who work on the issue.

Breaking the Culture of Silence, Burte Aruna, Pgs.75.

'Breaking the culture of silence' places Domestic Violence within the context of the feminist movement of 1980s in India. It highlights the democratic and left movements that created space for raising issues related to womens rights. This booklet is intended to capture the process that has enabled women to break the culture of silence that has hitherto surrounded their trauma.

Arthasankalp Tumcha Amcha: Margdarshika (Budget Guide in Marathi), Manoj Pandker and Prashant Raymus

The book includes breif description of budget,Component of budget,budget from preparatory phase to the presentation, enactment and execution, bdget Accounting , budget Functional classification, coding structures, illustration with context to some of sector allocations and expenditure, Components of District Zilla Parishad and Gram Panchayat budgets with illustrations. And explaining how grass-root level organizations activists can use budget as an effective advocacy tool for improvement of the present situation.

Safe Kit for Comprehensive Care and Documentation of Evidence in cases of Sexual Assault

The SAFE Kit is a scientifically sound and easy to use model kit for the examination and collection of evidence in cases of sexual assault and it consists a model protocol to be filled by the examining Doctor, a manual to guide the examining doctor and a box containing all equipments required for examination

Working Papers

Feminist Response to Attempted Suicide: A Model for Public Health Intervention by Padma Deosthali and Sangeeta Rege

Domestic violence is described as a pattern of continuous or intermittent coercive behaviour and control. It is used to humiliate women and force them to conform/adhere to gender roles. Each episode of abuse results in physical and psychological trauma that usually remains hidden. One of the most common effects of violence is the infliction of self-harm. Domestic violence has been associated with suicidal ideation and has been one of the leading causes of attempted suicides amongst women. Dilaasa , India 's first hospital based crisis centre was established to address Domestic Violence and provide services to women within the hospital itself. This counselling endeavour brought to light that several women admitted for "accidental consumption of poison" had essentially attempted suicide, the underlying reason being Domestic violence. In order to address this issue, the centre evolved a counselling model which was informed by feminist principles that challenged the main stream psychiatric model of labeling women as involved in "deliberate self harm" or indulging in "impulsive behaviour" but rather as a reaction to an extremely unbearable situation. This paper presents the feminist counselling methodology and illustrates it with examples from the counselling practice. Thus it makes a case for including a feminist counselling approach in public hospitals to the issue of attempted suicides in women... Download

Working Paper No. 1

A Comprehensive Health Sector Response to Sexual Assault Does the Delhi High Court Judgment Pave the Way? Co-authors: Jagadeesh N., Padma Deosthali, Sana Contractor, Sangeeta Rege, Seema Malik

This first paper in the CEHAT Working Papers series draws from its collective action research experience over the years in addressing the issue of sexual assault. The Paper presents its reasoned conviction on the importance of a multi-sectoral approach to the issue particularly in the context of the Delhi High Court mandate on the responsibilities of the many agencies involved in dealing with incidents of sexual assault. Even as it underlines the fact that only such an approach can make for a humane and effective response to cases of sexual assault, it makes a case for further research on the modalities of expanding the scope of the judicial mandate... Download

Establishing Dilaasa: Documenting the Challenges by Deosthali Padma, Maghnani Purnima and Malik Dr.Seema, Pgs. VI+43+X.

Dilaasa is the first hospital-based crisis centre in India for women survivors of domestic violence. It provides social and psychological support to women facing domestic violence. This publication is an effort made towards documenting various challenges posing Dilaasa while it was being established. The chapters such as Dilaasa's Model of Collaboration, Formative Period, Counselling Model and Strategies, Training Model and Strategies and Lessons Learnt and Recommendations consist of detailed information of Dilaasa's development. These experiences are of immense importance to those who want to set up similar centres for victims of domestic violence.Download full document

Burte, Aruna; Rege, Sangeeta and Deosthali, Padma Choosing to Live: Guidelines for Suicide Prevention Counselling in Domestic Violence, September 2005,Pgs.VI+57.

Choosing to live is the message underlined in the guidelines compiled for preventing suicides due to domestic violence. The book provides an in-depth understanding to suicidal tendencies, reasons or causes of suicides, means adopted for committing suicides, efforts to prevent such incidences by recognizing risk factors, consequences of such actions and psychological impact of domestic violence. The guidelines for effective counselling and techniques needed for counselling are helpful to those who want to reach out to persons suffering from such tendencies. Download full document

Process Documentation of Training of Trainers
Programme Area:Investigation and Treatment of Psyco-Social Trauma

Posters on Domestic Violence