Suraksha Open Shelter for Girls and Women in Crisis
Today’s global scenario, with modernized lifestyles and culture and a fast-growing economy provides many opportunities for employment and growth. However, it also has a dark side. Increasing numbers of children (both boys and girls) are being trafficked for sex or labour, poor youth are getting into alcohol and drug addiction, and the phenomenon of child and youth runaways is increasing. These phenomena, combined with Indian society’s low value for girls as ‘burdens’ to be removed, the lure of a ‘good job’ and ‘quick money’ which promise an escape from poverty for girls and young women – all result in their being pushed into early labour or sex work. The resulting abuse leaves deep physical, mental, sexual, emotional and social deep scars that are not easily erased.
Trafficking of young girls for prostitution and labour is most common between the ages of 9 to 14 years. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, a girl is abducted every 8 minutes in India.
APSA established Suraksha, a shelter in Kanakapura taluk near Bengaluru to rehabilitate such survivors of abuse in 2014. The centre can accommodate 50 persons at a time. They are referred to APSA by the Child Welfare Committees of districts in Karnataka. Through shelter and care, medical, counselling, wellness practices, education and creative therapies, APSA enables these girls/young women to overcome their life traumas, and build self-esteem, self-worth and dignity as survivors.
The APSA-Suraksha project liaisons with the Department of Women & Child Welfare (DWCW) and its agencies, the State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) and the Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU). APSA also partners with like-minded civil society organizations to campaign against child trafficking. Since 2014, APSA has provided shelter and rehabilitation services of Suraksha to an estimated 300 adolescent girls and young women survivors of sexual abuse.
Through its work with the Suraksha Shelter, APSA also felt that its expertise and experience working with children of disadvantaged families, in particular girls, could be extended to empower girls residing in the Government Girls’ Home (GGH) in Bengaluru. APSA’s social workers therefore worked full-time at the Bengaluru GGH for nearly 3 years, i.e., from June 2013 to December 2016. This has been one of APSA’s tremendous achievements as no other NGO had been permitted to work in the Home for such a duration and on full-time basis. APSA provided capacity building support to the GGH staff and conducted various activities for the girls in the Home, including counselling support, recreational activities in theatre and folk art, summer camps, personality development workshops, cultural programs and celebration of festivals. A skill training course in Beauty Care was also started, along with awareness sessions on child and gender rights, lifeskills and sexual health and issues of adolescence. The girls were helped to strengthen their leadership, communication and conflict resolution skills. The interventions benefited nearly 1,300 girls in the GGH.
The success of this intervention led to APSA receiving permission from the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) to work with the Government Boys’ Home from January 2015. Activities for boys were similar to those held for the GGH. Although APSA’s intervention was brief, and concluded in early 2016, it benefited nearly 80 boys living in the Home.
From 2018, Suraksha has also become a base for outreach work in 40 villages located in 5 Gram Panchayats. Initial groundwork included meetings with Gram Panchayat members and local leaders as well as women’s SHGs and other groups to talk about the Suraksha project, when APSA realized that the level of awareness on child rights and child protection was low. Government schools in the area did not offer lifeskills education or other recreational activities for children, and women were not aware of their rights, nor families of the entitlements under government welfare schemes.
While awareness on the Suraksha Shelter initially helped raise donations of food grains and vegetables from the local community, APSA’s outreach work in 13 rural government schools has reached nearly 700 children with life skills and sexual health education, adolescent health education, motivational sessions to handle exam stress and career guidance. APSA has also organized summer camps and included health-building activities, creative work, moral education and awareness on child rights related concerns.
A skill training centre was opened for providing youth in the local community with vocational skills for employment. Around 80-100 local youth (in particular young women) have been trained in skills such as Tailoring, Basic Computers, Tally and Retailing, enabling them to obtain jobs with companies such as Reliance, Vodafone, Idea and Health & Glow. APSA also set up a Production Unit in Kodihalli village with the aim of providing skill training and employment to rural women in the area. The Unit has trained nearly 80 women in Tailoring, with value-added inputs on child and gender rights, child protection, human trafficking, gender-based violence, and reproductive and sexual health awareness. APSA is now exploring possibilities for micro-production of items such as carry bags and quilt-making, to make the Production Unit self-sustaining.
APSA has also been one of the first NGOs in the area to conduct Makkala Vishesha Gram Sabhas (Children’s village-level meetings) in the five Gram Panchayat villages. Participation at these meetings has included government school children and teachers, School Development and Monitoring Committee (SDMC) members, panchayat members, PDOs and anganwadi workers, representatives from the Departments of Health and Police. Issues presented by children have been responded to and addressed, including construction/ repair of toilets and compound walls and running water connections in government schools, appointment of police for monitoring child safety at bus stops, plantation of saplings, wall mural painting, repair of roads, and provision of space for anganwadis, among others.
APSA has also been the first NGO to help set up Village Level Child Protection Committees (VLCPCs) in two Gram Panchayats – Kodihalli and Hosadurga, in Kanakapura taluk. Although notified by the state government in 2011, VLCPC structures had not been set up before APSA’s presence in these areas.
APSA’s community programs have also positively impacted more than 2,000 community women (including women members of self-help groups) and at least 300 youth, with awareness on gender rights, gender-based violence, the Domestic Violence Act of 2005, effects of migration for work, importance of education for girls, skill training and employment, harmful effects of alcohol and drug abuse, and HIV and AIDS, among others.
