Staff of BBMP referral hospitals and health centres will soon assume a new role—that of domestic violence counsellors. The workers listed for the job include doctors, auxiliary nurse midwifes (ANM) and link workers.
Under the Soukya Project funded by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), three counsellors will provide training to BBMP doctors, ANMs and link workers to provide them skills to address domestic violence, starting from May. They in turn will provide counseling to the victims of domestic violence, said Dr Suneeta Krishnan, principal investigator for the project from St John’s Research Institute.
This step comes after an eight year (2003-2011) study conducted under Samata Health Study revealed that over 56% of married women in the age group of 18-44 years across the low income group in Bengaluru, were victims of domestic violence in one way or the other. “Of the respondents surveyed, about 56% of women had experienced physical violence, 30 % of them were kicked, beaten by their husbands within six months of their marriage and two women died in severe domestic violence” she added.
The numbers of domestic violence cases are on the rise. To prevent this, ICMR has taken up this three year project in association with the Soukhya Project of St Johns’ Research Institute, the Bangalore Healthy Urbanization Project of BBMP. Dr Suneeta told Deccan Chronicle: “The intervention module has been prepared. The counsellors will be stationed at zonal referral hospitals and the doctors, ANMs and link workers will be trained zone wise. We will begin with East Bengaluru first.”
“As per the Domestic Violence Act 2005, victims of domestic violence can approach the police station and seek help from the officer concerned, but majority of the victims avoid going to police stations for fear of breaking societal norms,” she added. Some women may be reluctant to discuss their issues initially. In such cases, the counsellors will visit the houses of such women and talk to their families to take them into confidence. “If the case is serious, they will be referred it to larger centres dealing specifically with domestic violence legally”, she added.