Holding her month-old daughter in her hand, Riddhi (name changed) sits patiently waiting for her turn at the Indore based One Stop Centre. Physically abused and thrown out of her in-laws’ house for giving birth to a girl child, Ridhi, a Post-Graduate in Economics is waiting to return home, despite being aware of a bleak future.
Riddhi was called in by the officials at the government run centre after the local police reported the matter. Sharing her ordeal, Riddhi said that barely after a month into her marriage, her in-laws and husband, a resort manager, had started abusing her seeking dowry. Things turned for the worse after she delivered a girl a month ago.
“It birth was via a C-section. Following the discharge from the hospital, I went to my husband’s house. The very next day was not only physically abused but was asked to leave the house in the middle of the night. After my condition deteriorated, they admitted me to the hospital, from where I was then sent to my parents’ house,” she said.
“Now they refuse to take me back. My father is a factory worker and I have four siblings. I can’t stay at my parents’ house as it will bring shame to their name. I approached the women’s cell in police, from where they referred my case to the One Stop Center. Now, this centre is my only hope to resolve the issue with my husband and in-laws,” she went on to add.
Sitting next to her is Seema (name changed), who is also on her first visit to the Centre. Seema’s husband, from an financially affluent family, recorded her intimate videos and circulated it. Seema’s world came crashing down when she saw her neighbour watching one of those videos. Hailing from a poor family, she and sister-in-law approached the centre for help. “We are daily wage workers, earning just 500 to 600 rupees a day. We can’t support her for long. That’s why we’re here—we want a resolution,” said Seema’s sister-in-law.
These are the few cases that approach the One Stop Center, also known as Sakhi Kendra, based in Indore. Launched in June 2016, under the Nirbhaya scheme of the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, the center has seen 15,683 cases registered with them till date.
Vanshchna Singh Parihar, the Women Empowerment Officer at the Indore OSC, stated that under the important schemes funded and supported by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, Sakhi Niwas and One Stop Center located in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, are working prominently in the empowerment of children and women.
Under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana’, 2,36,624 women have been benefited in Indore district so far. Indore district has also been awarded by the Government of India for benefiting the maximum number of women in the country in terms of numbers in the years 2018-19 and 2019-20.
The center helps in the prevention of domestic violence and harassment of women by giving them information. At the center, the women are given shelter, medical, legal aid, police assistance and counseling assistance at one place. The center has also done work for the rehabilitation of women suffering from domestic violence by connecting them with various training, self-employment schemes, getting them jobs, getting various necessary documents made, and providing financial assistance too.