Women for Freedom Initiative to prevent violence, abuse against women and children

Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who made the keynote speech at the launch of  Women for Freedom, is seen among the attendees 
Pics by Kushan Pathiraja Sulochana Dissanayake, Founder and artistic director of Power of Play (Pvt) Ltd.

• The Women for Freedom committee comprise lawyers, activists, academics and artistes who actively engage in raising awareness on these issues
• 1500 incidents of rape of women and children were reported in 2021

I was beaten severely using wire and rods. My husband never stopped using drugs. He wanted to sell my land. Every time he got drugged, he would beat me and my children. I forgave him thinking about my children, but he continued to be more violent,” said a survivor of domestic violence on conditions of anonymity. This is one of the many incidents and experiences faced by women who are subject to domestic violence and they face it on a daily basis. At a time when incidents of domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse of women and children have risen exponentially, the recently launched Women for Freedom initiative aims to address the root causes of these incidents, strengthen the family unit, empower law enforcement authorities and ultimately serve justice to victims.

“There are reasons such as the law and the outdated Penal code etc. However, the civil society in Sri Lanka, perhaps because the state, isn’t functioning effectively in most areas, have become, happily very active,”
- Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga

 “I think that the Sri Lankan state as a policy should bring child protection as one of its strongest policies. Then everything else will fall into place. Due to neglect, children will be vulnerable to crime. A lot of our mothers in Sri Lanka find it as an excuse to runaway to work as an escape route from the abuse,”
- Child Protection Force Founder Milani Salpitikorala

Society traumatized by violence 

Women for Freedom was launched at a time when around 25% of women in Sri Lanka are being subjected to physical and/or sexual abuse. This percentage applies to children as well and most children subjected to violence are under the age of 18.  “But the more worrying aspect is that the Police has not been able to get at least one single conviction out of the over 2000 cases of abuse,” said former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in her keynote speech. “There are reasons such as the law and the outdated Penal code etc. However, the civil society in Sri Lanka, perhaps because the state, isn’t functioning effectively in most areas, have become, happily very active. We have two or three groups comprising young ladies who have taken the initiative to engage in various actions to minimise or prevent abuse of women and children,” said President Kumaratunga. 
The Women for Freedom committee comprise lawyers, activists, academics and artistes who actively engage in raising awareness on these issues. “We have Milani with her organisation, the Child Protection Force; she’s a young lawyer who appears for women free-of-charge, runs safe houses and engages in awareness creating campaigns for women, girls and young boys. Sulochana Dissanayake uses the medium of art and puppetry to take the message across the country. On International Women’s Day I got this idea to get these ladies and other ladies to form a committee and see if we could evolve a three-year/ five-year action plan which we could operate in tandem with whatever the government is doing. This is how the committee of women for freedom was formed,” she said. 

The action plan aims to prevent violence, take legal action and provide safe homes for women and children while attending to the effects of these heinous crimes. However, addressing the crime or the act after it happens is ineffective and therefore, the root causes need to be addressed first. Even though 1500 incidents of rape of women and children were reported in 2021, this is not even half of the incidents that happen. The stigma that revolves around discussing such experiences, keep most women from speaking out. “Sri Lanka is perhaps the only country that has undergone the longest period of political and social violence relentlessly. It began in 1971 with the youth uprising in the south and has continued to date till the aragalaya. The aragalaya was not violent, but it eventually ended in terrible violence. We all know especially as women that that kind of violence lasts in gender-social violence. Violence within the hearts and minds of people triggered by terrific tensions and stress,” she explained. 

President Kumaratunga further said that most people have seen their loved ones being shot at, or being victims of a suicide bombing and so on. “With sociopolitical violence on one side, and state terror on the other side, a whole society has been completely shaken and traumatised. Men who think they are a dominant factor in our society, are taking out on their wives and children in the form of physical or sexual violence,” she said. 

She stressed on the fact that temporary solutions could be given to victims of violence and women who run away from their homes due to domestic abuse while proposing educational reforms to include peace and conflict studies and reconciliation in school curricula. “There were three incidents of domestic violence reported from my district, which is said to be the richest and the most educated district in the country. But in all these three incidents, the men happen to be school teachers. It is a very severe, deep-seated problem within our societies. We want democracy and human freedom and a properly functioning democratic governance and I think for that we need several more aragalayas. I’m very happy to say that the youth have realized that there’s a deep-seated problem and they are asking for system change,” she said. 

Objectives

Education, awareness through media and obtaining justice are the three focus areas of this initiative. Strengthening the family unit is at its core as it is believed to be the only way to strengthen the community and pave the way to a stronger state. From a legal point of view, it is believed that including aspects of child protection, women’s rights and approaches to sustain the family unit for example, would empower children and will subsequently reduce crime rates. “Society itself is not aware of what happens really within families,” opined Child Protection Force Founder Milani Salpitikorala. “Our final aspect is justice which our team is doing. We provide justice by providing women with shelter and our survivors have appreciated the safe homes service,” said Salpitikorala. 

A spike in domestic violence and child abuse cases was observed during the lockdown period owing to many reasons. “When the family unit breaks down due to domestic violence it compromises on the value systems and parents are preoccupied about what they are fighting about. I think that the Sri Lankan state as a policy should bring child protection as one of its strongest policies. Then everything else will fall into place. Due to neglect, children will be vulnerable to crime. A lot of our mothers in Sri Lanka find it as an excuse to runaway to work as an escape route from the abuse. The mentalities of the accused are such that I planted a tree to reap the fruit. One father giving a statement in police said, “She’s the eldest daughter in the family and she cooks and looks after the siblings so she should have sex with me”. These are the consequences when the family unit and children are more subject to crime. This cycle continues and it needs to be stopped immediately,” said Salpitikorala.

Secondary victimization is one of the main challenges faced by survivors and therefore they are reluctant to visit a police station to lodge a complaint. The process would take anything between 4-5 hours and people are conditioned to be scared of law enforcement authorities. The enforcers usually don’t help women. “So no survivor of crime would want to walk into a police station and lodge a complaint. This is why a lot of women didn’t want to do anything in their testimonies. They wanted to hold on because of their children. Women are told its embedded in our system and that women are financially dependent and therefore they don’t leave an abusive situation. This is also known as the battered woman syndrome – we have a lot of clients who don’t want to come out of the abusive situation,” Salpitikorala added.

Prevention is one of the key approaches taken by Women for Freedom and the collaborative efforts. “We have conducted around 8-10 workshops with the Police, sensitising them on how to interview a child, creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for law enforcement, workshops for district and provincial secretaries and officers who are already working on the subject. We also provide free legal aid service for women and children who are survivors of crime. We have a safe house for women with service such as mental health assistance, clinical psychology, neuro-linguistic programming, equine therapy and a few therapy dogs, basically providing comfort to clients. So we encourage everyone to report these incidents and raise awareness on organizations such as Women for Freedom,” said Salpitikorala.