Crisis Intervention Cell
Over the past 28 years as a core service provider agency ASHA (Action for Self-Reliance Hope and Awareness) has worked as a nonprofit non-governmental organization. It was established in 1993 with the aim of working for the underprivileged women and those affected by domestic violence for their up upliftment and empowerment.
When the Asha was established in 1993 in Pune, Maharashtra the founder members of ASHA brought to the organization not only their domain expertise but humanistic, client-centered, non-directive philosophical orientation. We are a group of professionals deeply engaged into services in our respective fields.
We believe empowerment as an internal process as against the popular misconception of being powerful. Empowerment for us is about effective and assertive exercise of universal human rights.However a state of vulnerability in the wake of the crisis results in feeling powerless and confused and it justifies an external intervention.The direction and thrust of interventions needed to be towards restoration of the women’s own sense of agency rather than that state of dependency and victimization
With above view ASHA established Domestic Violence crises intervention cell in 1996 in one of the centrally located police station of Pune. We wanted to help women while working with the laws, our focus and the boundaries between organization’s role and that of police is very clear. Our work is not hostile and we work in non-confrontational manner.
The objective of domestic violence crisis intervention cell is to address violence and abuse in personal relationships and to promote safety, mitigate the conflicts and facilitate fairness in resolution as much as possible within the mandate of crisis intervention service. The Framework emphasizes human rights and gives priority to personal safety.
Generally every year around 250 cases gets register in ASHA. Most of our clients are referred to us by the previous clients, acquaintances, police stations, advocate & family court counselors, doctors etc. In the beginning of the establishment of the organization most of the time women’s from lower socioeconomic class with minimum education & resources would come to the organization for help but in last few years men and women from all socioeconomic strata and educational background come to ASHA for assistance. Most of these clients have found out about ASHA from internet.
SW at crises intervention cell provide services to the clients who walk in at the cell or are referred because of domestic violence. These include crises intervention, advocacy, referral, information, support & practical assistance to people subjected to, or using violence & abuse in relationships, giving priority to those subjected to violence.
Crisis intervention cell works under the supervision of trained social workers, psychiatrist & lawyer from Monday to Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
The crisis intervention cell social workers provide need based interventions after an initial assessment. The social workers and client take a call on seeking police intervention if necessary. At the stage of crisis the social worker make a specific and focused intervention with their help. The relief and assurance mitigates the vulnerability of the client, brings down the threat perception to an extent and the client can move on to the next phase of coping namely reappraisal of her situation.
Most of the time when a person is in a toxic relationship for a period of time they mighthave some emotional, mental or psychological issues.Sometimes issues like stress, depression, anxiety, mood disorders, decision making issues can be seen in a person. At such times psychiatric help can be really helpful and useful hence, ASHA has psychiatric OPD every Wednesday where we try to help clients to deal with such issues.
Some of the times client is not able to take decision regarding their relationship they just want to know the options and the ways it can be worked out; hence Asha provides them with legal guidance and assistance every Saturday. All the services provided by ASHA are free of cost.
Extramural Training Program
ASHA is actively involved in activities on multiple levels such as awareness & sensitization about gender issues, legal literacy in the context of women, sensitization about safety security concerns etc. These objectives are met with through the extra mural training programs for target group such as NGO’s, communities, women employees of corporate sector, adolescent girls from schools & junior colleges and police personnel, construction site laborers etc.
Following is the data of extramural training conducted in last 8years with number of beneficiaries in various sectors. Topics covered in these training were awareness on domestic violence, eve teasing, sexual harassment at workplace, listening & communication skills, women’s health, child sexual abuse, child marriage, child nutrition, health & environmental hygiene etc.
Beneficiaries List:
- Mahila Dakshata Samiti members at police station: 95
- Government staff : 155
- Community women : 1688
- Corporate sector staff : 118
- Adolescent school & college going girls :810
- Hospital staff : 125
- Construction laborers : 6407
- NGO staff : 50
- Young School going children :107
Sakhi Helpline +91 9421016006
ASHA has a helpline called “Sakhi “from 2009. Sakhi Help Line provides telephonic counseling services to clients who cannot approach ASHA in person. Sakhi helpline number is available online from 2017 with rise in number of calls received on helpline after that. Maximum numbers of calls are received in 2020 and during lockdown calls were received from Maharashtra as well as from all over India like West Bengal, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh etc. Following tables represent the help line calls in last five years (2016-2020). The helpline number to reach Sakhi is Sakhi helpline number +91 9421016006.
| Year | Marital Calls | Other than Marital Calls | ||
| New | Follow up | New | Follow up | |
| 2016 | 129 | 4 | 43 | 4 |
| 2017 | 283 | 22 | 109 | 2 |
| 2018 | 390 | 27 | 130 | 5 |
| 2019 | 542 | 35 | 198 | 2 |
| 2020 | 608 | 76 | 231 | 6 |
| Total | 1952 | 164 | 711 | 19 |
Project Pankhi
Tribhovandas Bhimji Javeri collaborated with ASHA for their CSR project on Domestic Violence from October 2019. TBZ has started helpline named Pankhi. Pankhi HL provides counseling services to women facing domestic violence. This helpline has one centralized number and is currently working in various cities of India like Ahmadabad, Surat, Baroda, Mumbai, Delhi, Kochin, Noida, Bihar in association with NGO’s in respected cities. ASHA is creating awareness about Pankhi HL in Pune. Project Pankhi started in October 2019.
For organizing awareness program ASHA contacted various NGO’s in Pune like CASP, Deepgruha, Family Planning Association, Snehdeep, and Hope for children foundation, Pragati foundation etc and reached to 1778 people in 2019 & 2020 through 41 awareness programs.
In 2020 ASHA conducted physical awareness program as well as online awareness programs (webinars) following corona pandemic & lockdown. Through webinars ASHA has reached to IT companies in Pune as well as NGO’s outside Pune like Andhashradha Nirmulun Samiti in Mumbai, Palghar, Thane and companies like Forbes Marshall, VM ware, Tech Mahindra , Cognizant, Nitor InfoTech, Vinsys IT company & Norton Life lock etc. In 2020 total 23 webinars were conducted by ASHA and we reached to 1136 people.
