Every Month Shelter Homes Get A Dozen Women Who Are Abused
Viju B I TNN
Mumbai: Anupama Sharma, daughter of an air force officer, was reunited with her family after spending two years in isolation at the general ward of the Beggars Home in Chembur.
Smita Borkar disappeared from home in Pune after becoming mentally ill. She was sexually abused on the streets of Mumbai before the police picked her up last month from CST.
Meera, who hails from Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, reached Mumbai in search of work. But after her husband died in an accident she was sexually abused repeatedly at Mahim.
These are a few cases highlighting the plight of destitute and mentally-ill women who landed in Mumbai, but having nowhere to go, got picked up by the police from streets and railway stations under the Beggary Prevention Act. Some were sent to the beggars home while others were sent to the wards of state-run hospitals.
On an average, the 10 temporary shelter homes in Mumbai receive at least a dozen women every month who are sexually abused or suffer from serious mental illnesses. But the homes do not have the facility to treat the mentallyill patients, let alone provide the victims with a permanent shelter.
Giving the victims a second chance to lead a normal life is the greatest challenge that we face today in Mumbai, said Mohammed Tarique, the programme coordinator of Koshish, a rehabilitation project run by Tata Institute of Social Sciences at the Chembur beggars home. TISS is currently coordinating with inmates of the home and also locating their relatives to reunite them. We took 10 to 12 women back home and reunited them with their families in the recent past, said Tarique.
Most of the women suffered from mental illnesses due to sexual abuse. Domestic violence is another reason why women run away from home. Once, a woman in her early twenties left home as she was beaten up. But when she reached Mumbai, she was abused again, said an official of the Chemburs Beggars Home. Most of them need urgent psychiatric help, but get little help. Prayas is another project run by TISS involved in the rehabilitation of women and youth vulnerable to crime or prostitution. Our social workers coordinate with the railway police and rescue such women at stations, said Vijayraghavan, faculty member at the centre for criminology and justice, TISS.
Health workers say that with very little social support coming in, there are instances where women find themselves out on the streets again after a stint at the beggars home. The health workers face another roadblock from the state and BMC-run hospitals who allow patients only if they have an escort.
Psychiatrists say many of them suffer from schizophrenia, adding that the author-ities were not doing anything to solve the problem.
(Some names have been changed)
Publication:Times Of India Mumbai; Date:Sep 19, 2007; Section:Times City; Page Number:9
URL : http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA3LzA5LzE5I0FyMDA5MDA=&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom