A helpline in rural Gujarat has been helping women in distress 9911391234 would seem like any other mobile number. But for women in Gujarats Kutch district,it is the number they dial in times of distress. For,it is a helpline called Hello Sakhi,which addresses security issues of women and is the outcome of a partnership between the Kutch Police and the Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS),a voluntary organisation that has been working with poor rural women since 1989. In 2009,they decided to turn to technology to empower women. That was the beginning of Hello Sakhi. The initiative was sorely needed,as the entire district of Kutch had only one womens police station at Bhuj. Any call made to this police station would have to be forwarded to the nearest police outpost leading to precious time being wasted. We had a proactive deputy superintendent of police,Vabang Zamir,who also wanted to do something about domestic violence. When we mooted the idea for a helpline,he readily agreed, says Meena Rajgor,programme executive,KMVS. In just two years,the idea has won an award the Women Innovation for Mobile Award 2011,given by the Vodafone Foundation,and the Digital Empowerment Foundation,which works towards digital inclusion in development across South Asia. The helpline,which took off in May 2010,is answered by volunteers of KMVS who work out of the Mahila Cell at the Bhuj police headquarters,from 8 am to 9 pm. What if calls are placed after that? We used to stay longer,but have calculated that calls are not made beyond 8 pm, says Rajgor. Once a call is placed,the volunteer takes down the case details and advises the caller on the options,legal or otherwise,available. If the callers security or life is threatened,the volunteer alerts both the police outpost and the KMVS paralegal volunteers nearest to the callers location. All KMVS volunteers have been issued a police mitra card by the Bhuj police,and use mostly public transport to attend to cases. Our counsellors are located in each block of the district,and can reach the spot within 1-2 hours, says Rajgor. Hello Sakhi gets,on an average,two calls a day. Most queries relate to domestic violence while some are to do with legal options. Since inception,the helpline has received 650 calls,out of which 300 were resolved. Like that of a woman in Nakhatrana block,whose husband and brother-in-law were plotting to murder her. The woman was doused with kerosene and was about to be set afire,when our counsellors reached and rescued her. Police arrested her husband and brother-in-law. We arranged for treatment and helped in her rehabilitation, says Rajgor . For the women,Hello Sakhi has the advantage of anonymity. Women who want to talk about their problems do not wish to do so with their relatives or neighbours,for in these close-knit communities,word spreads fast. Our helpline enables them to open up, says Rajgor. The helpline,though,is restricted to Kutch district. What if a call is placed from another part of Gujarat? In such cases,we advise on legal options,and where intervention is required,we refer them to other organisations working in that particular district and we too forward the case details to them, says Rajgor.
