Domestic violence protection forum: Kerala women gather to support abuse victims

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** Trigger warning: explicit mention of violence **

Among the many stories of domestic violence we heard that day, it is the one about the 74-year-old woman appealing for protection from her husband of decades that we found most appalling. What led her to file a case under the Domestic Violence (DV) Act after all this time, we asked. To taste the peace she had not known in years, she replied. And also, to reclaim her house and live there.

For her and several other women who had been harassed for years at their marital homes, help came from a nondescript group of women, not known by a name or advertised in a column. They hear out survivors and victims’ families, barge into police stations, and use the clauses of the DV Act to bring protection and justice to the abused women. They are a motley crew, some of them part of the women’s organisation Sakhi, others individuals of varied jobs, including lawyers and social workers. 

Two months ago, they organised the Garhika Athikrama Prathirotha Samiti (Domestic Violence Prevention Forum) in Kottayam, hoping to bring together all those who wish to work for the cause. On June 28, they had a second meeting in Thiruvananthapuram, and they plan on holding one in every district in the coming days. 

At these meetings, the women speak out about the abuse they endured. 

“Do not skip my name when my story is told,” said Jessy S, a tuition teacher who wants the world to know what happened to her. Until a few years ago, she would have said the opposite, made an excuse for her bruised face and broken ribs, and not spoken of what went on at home. 

Her house, which had been built for her by her sister, was in Pulluvila, a coastal village between Kovalam and Poovar in Thiruvananthapuram. Less than four years ago, she was found outside this house, bloodied and with a piece of cloth stuffed into her mouth, carried off on the shoulders of a heavy set man, her husband of many years, her abuser.