Lakshyam helping women to be self-reliant during lockdown 

New Delhi: Recently, National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has released data that suggest that the nationwide lockdown has led to a rapid increase in cases of domestic violence. During the first four phases of the lockdown, Indian women filed more domestic violence complaints than recorded in the last 10 years. But even this unusual spurt is only the tip of the iceberg as 86% women who experience domestic violence do not seek help or register complain in India and 77% of the victims did not even mention the incidents to anyone.

To hear the voices of these women who are victims of any form of domestic violence, Lakshyam, an NGO devoted to the destitute and suppressed communities, came as a ray of light for these women. A helpline number has been shared with all of them and on receiving any complaint, immediately the team at Lakshyam informs the local Police and National Commission for Women for help and rescue the woman and further give references of NGOs who provide counselling on professional level. 

Also, there is a full-time counsellor who provides help to deal with the mental state of the victim at that point of time. As most of the women are illiterate and come from deprived sections of the society, the NGO provides shelter and food to them and their children. In last four months, numerous calls on violence has been received from DelhiNCR, Jharkhand, UP, MP, Bihar and Uttarakhand. Lakshyam ensure that the help should reach to every women who is experiencing such vulnerable incident in any part of the country. 

Moreover, Lakshyam is supporting these women who are the victims of domestic violence and belongs to the underprivileged sections of the society by giving them opportunity for being self-reliant and earn for themselves as well as their families. During distribution of food to the needy people in rural pockets of the country, some women approached Lakshyam volunteers and requested for work to run their families as most of their husbands have lost their jobs who were working as daily labourers during this lockdown. Besides dry food they were not having other necessities like medicine and milk they wanted for their children. Lakshyam came to the rescue of these women and provide them food, shelter and employment.  The team at Lakshyam procured orders for masks and these women started stitching them. 

Till date, 25000 cotton reusable masks has been created by these women. Also, during this crisis, to avoid the usage of polythene bags which creates environmental hazards, these women started stitching cloth bags out of Katrans and left over fabrics. Lakshyam pay Rs.8 for each mask stitched by a particular woman.  Today, in average one woman earn Rs.8,000 per month to support her family.

“In the last few weeks, we are receiving on an average 50 to 100 calls per day on domestic violence from different parts of the country. It has increased exponentially, but we are trying our best to reach each and every single woman who is a victim as soon as possible. We are extremely happy that at this difficult times, apart from rescuing them, we could also provide them food, shelter and employment for getting self-sufficient and support their families. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to each and everyone who supported us to help these women” said Raashi Anand, Founder& CEO of Lakshyam.