A Domestic Violence Coordinated Project- Going Beyond Victim Support

Domestic violence is a silent crisis that happens daily and with impunity behind closed doors and within close relationships in many Indian homes. Community gender norms tacitly sanction domestic violence. The strongly held belief that marriage as a social institution should be preserved at all costs and that family honour is important forces women to remain silent on the issue and live with abuse. Unfortunately this is a shared philosophy with the criminal justice system, further victimizing the woman. ‘Survivalistic corruption ’ (Prasanna, 1995) adds fuel to the fire. This paper describes and analyses a coordinated (women police unit and a social agency) project, Udhayam- A PCVC Community Support Unit, based in Chennai, India. It highlights the success of an integrated response model that would enhance victim safety, reduce secondary victimization and incidence of domestic violence. The program run on an experimental basis for one year has come out to be an ideal community-based integrated response model with the police and the social and health services together to provide interventions. It paves the way for a Domestic Violence Integrated Response Program that will reduce secondary victimization and enhance victim support through inter-agency cooperation and collaboration. In this age of bombs and terrorist threats, it will not be surprising to hear a woman say she fears to travel in a train or a plane, or holds her heart till her child returns home safely from school or work. But the fact is that for many, ‘home ’ is where they face a regime of terror and violence at the hands of somebody close to them – somebody they should b