Community-led interventions find over 4,000 victims of violence in Mumbai slums

A study by SNEHA and University College London found community-led interventions increase disclosure of violence among Mumbai women.

Over 4,000 women from the slums of Mumbai have admitted to experiencing violence. A five-year study found that community-led interventions increase the likelihood of disclosure of violence by the survivors. The study was conducted by the Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action (SNEHA), a Mumbai-based NGO working on gender and healthcare, along with researchers from University College London from 2018 to 2023.  

Based on the program monitoring data, Dr. Nayreen Daruwalla, Programme Director of SNEHA said that the program was conducted in 48 urban informal settlement clusters (slums) of Kurla and Wadala covering a population of around 60,000 people of which 4,121 women between the age group of 18 and 49 have identified themselves as survivors of different forms of violence. 

“Before designing the program, we had spent twenty years in Dharavi and Govandi developing this program. For this study, we wanted to pick new areas that have large slums, and we were able to complete it in much shorter time because it was done more systematically. The socio-economic structure reveals that most of the families live in poverty, and work in informal sectors. Over 40% of Mumbai’s population live in these slums. In the survery, we tried to get the youngest married woman in the house and took people of disability who are more likely to experience violence,” Ms. Daruwalla said. 

The research team wanted to find solutions that will have long-lasting impact in the community, so they formed more than 72 women’s groups, 25 men’s groups, and 24 youth groups in the neighborhoods in which the interventions were conducted. Over 2,000 women attended each group. 

Identification of the survivors increased steadily over the 4 years the program was conducted: 791 in the first year, 874 in the second year, 1180 in the third year, and 1276 in the fourth year. Of these, the NGO identified 3309 facing domestic violence, out of which 26% were facing violence from an intimate partner, 48% from another family member, and 26% from both. The forms of violence most reported by survivors included emotional (93%), followed by economic abuse (84%), physical violence (80%), coercive control and neglect (both 72%). 

72% of members of women’s groups had helped at least one-woman facing violence in the community by talking to survivors (95%) and their families (57%), arranging counselling (60%), negotiating within communities, responding to crisis and involving colleagues or the police.  

Professor David Osrin from University College London said that over a decade ago, violence against women was not considered as a public health problem. With constant efforts of NGOs and activists, people now consider it as a public health problem.