Violence Against Women: Can India's All-Women Police Stations Deliver Justice?

All-female police units in Jaipur are patrolling hotspots for sexual harassment and gender-based violence, such as bus stops and parks. Among the first in India, these units, as well as all-women police stations, are an effort to protect women’s rights and encourage more girls and women to report abuse. However, such efforts may slow the mainstreaming of women into the police force and leave broader societal attitudes about women’s rights unchanged.

WARAKA Sexual Referral Centre provides services for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), including medical assistance and legal support. Amidst issues of confidentiality and stigma that prevent people from reporting cases of SGBV, the group uses an app that allows survivors to choose whether they share their identity or not when reporting an SGBV case. The app has recorded about 2,000 cases since 2022, inspiring the government to take action and enact relevant legislation to protect human rights and safety.

The salishi (local arbitration) system operated by women's collectives in West Bengal successfully resolves about 74% of domestic violence and family disputes through community-based mediation. This has resulted in the encouragement of people following legal routes.

The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA) provides comprehensive survivor support services including legal aid, medical care, shelters, and prevention programs, successfully building public trust and securing 140+ convictions while reaching 6.3 million people through awareness campaigns, though significant gaps remain between the 8,692 reported cases and actual access to justice and support services.

The community networks of women defenders in Piura are organized structures that, since 2018, have provided accompaniment, training, and inter-institutional coordination to victims of gender-based violence, combining psychological support, legal pathways, and economic empowerment. Since their founding, more women have reported violence, coordination between public institutions such as police and prosecutor's offices have improved, and survivors have transformed into leaders who break cycles of violence in their communities. Read this story in Spanish here: https://solu.news/mvw1

The Basic Rights Counsel Initiative provides free legal representation, emergency shelter, and psychological support to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria's Cross River state. In a country where prosecutions can be hampered by ineffective or under-resourced institutions, the organization has filed 822 court cases and secured 30 arrests and convictions.

Brazil's Bolsa Familia program provides monthly grants to families to help cover the costs of education and health care. The funds, which are specifically disbursed to women, have improved poverty rates and helped empower some women to leave abusive relationships.

Dvert is a partnership between Cincinnati police and Women Helping Women, a social services agency that puts domestic-violence survivors in touch with an advocate from the moment they report abuse. Advocates can provide for survivors' immediate needs, including childcare and safe shelter. They provide counseling and support to survivors throughout the prosecution of a case, should the survivor choose to pursue that remedy. More women have found the strength to pursue prosecutions, which advocates hope will ultimately keep more women safer than if they drop a complaint and reconcile with an abusive partner.

The Bihar, India, state government banned drinking and selling alcohol in 2016 after women in the mostly rural state mounted protests blaming men's alcohol abuse for rampant violence against women. Hundreds of thousands of arrests, carrying severe penalties, resulted from the ban. Previous bans in Bihar and other states failed because of unpopularity and loopholes. This one has some evidence to suggest a 15% decline in drinking, but only a 4% decline in violence, while bootlegging and other crimes have increased. The prohibition protests have spread to other states.

Married off to an abusive older man at age 9, Akkatai Teli could not read or write. But she recognized how the rural India justice system neglected women like her in a misogynistic society with high rates of domestic violence, creaky legal machinery, and social pressure to cover up abuse and stay in awful marriages. Teli built a sisterhood movement throughout 50 villages that has helped more than 1,000 women fight for their rights by agitating for attention from police and courts.