I am Manju Devi Joshy -kishan gardh block in district Ajmer. I work in gender violence . This is the new project and was started in July where we reach out to women facing violence in their homes . Project started after we did a survey of 35 villages and 10 gram panchayats.

We have encountered many many cases of violence against women within their homes, their work places. What a case had huge impact on me.

Manbhar Meghwanshi, resident of Khera village is a disable woman 30 years. She belonged to SC community, married to a disable man.

She got married through Atta-satta customary practice; it is a system where a family enters into an alliance of their daughter only when the other family pledges to give them a daughter to be married in their family. The age of the girls offered for matrimony in the two families does not matter. The practice is very common.

Her husband wasn’t working was an alcoholic and beat her wife almost daily and not give her food often. All the household expenses were met through Manbhar’s disability pension. Suffering torture on a daily basis she one day left the house. Since it was a marriage of exchange no one took her back, including her. After retuning back she was treated more badly there, her husband beat her again, her mother-in-law cut the electricity connection of her room and she was forced to live in the darkness for three days, her house is located in an area with huge snake population.

She was later thrown out of the house. She sat pleading for hours but wasn’t allowed in. We came to know about her . When we reached her CFAR was also shocked there was snake in her house where she was living in darkness. We lodged an FIR, she was taken to a short stay home and later to Sakhi centre.

Now she in Nari Niketan and our team is in regular touch with her.

The violence on women is heartbreaking here and this is just tip of iceberg.