Project Association for Advocacy and Legal Initiatives (AALI)

Campaign Story

About the project

Gender-based discrimination remains a pervasive challenge throughout many of the locales where CRY America partners work. In Jharkhand state, women and girls in underserved communities routinely face domestic violence, sexual harassment and assault, lack of access to safe mobility, entitlements and the basic power of choice, as well as susceptibility to trafficking, child marriage and superstition-fueled persecution (including “witch-hunting”). Women are disempowered by a poor understanding of economic opportunities and available legal resources and justice mechanisms.

Making a difference

AALI is a women-led organization committed to the protection and advancement of rights of women, children and other marginalized communities. AALI has direct field presence in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Bihar, and provides technical support to various women rights’ organizations and groups across India.

AALI educates women in these communities about their own rights and entitlements. Its core project strategy is to create a grassroots network of Young Women Community (YWC) Leaders, who educate others on their legal rights and how to claim them. Additionally, AALI trains lawyers how to assist women and girls in navigating the legal system, and through one-on-one case management connects women with social security programs and livelihood opportunities.

Action during COVID times

● Intervened in 198 cases of gender- and identity-based violence (which saw an uptick during lockdown), linking victims to legal resources as and when necessary.
● Conducted 110 community-level meetings with YWC leaders to maintain meaningful engagement.
● Four virtual meetings held with caseworkers to assess the needs of the community and discuss strategies of intervention during pandemic.

The way forward

● Train a new cohort of community case workers and YWC on gender and identity-based violations and engagement with justice mechanisms.
● Reach target of 300 direct case interventions by trained community case workers in all eight districts.
● Organize human rights/justice system workshops with key district government stakeholders and state-level lawyers’ network.
● Coordinate 160 community-level meetings with local youth, aimed at knowledge building on: safe mobility, access to justice, trafficking of women and girls, labor laws, choice in relationships, illegal detention and confinement by family and honor-related violence.

Project Impact

75

Villages reached through various interventions.

162

Women and women-led households connected to social safety-net programs

8

In all 8 districts, need-based, demand-driven intervention plans developed.

State-wide colloquium organized with various organizations working on issues of trafficking, safe mobility and migration.

44

Lawyers from 16 districts participated in workshops on marriage and divorce under Muslim Personal Law and the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

Last Year’s Grant Disbursed: $133,083

Current Year’s Approved Grant: $148,860

Project Story

The world over, the COVID pandemic had a way of making already-bad home situations even worse: Such was the case for 25-year old Shilpa from Ranchi and her young daughter.

Her husband, a wage laborer, began having extramarital affairs with several other women. These relationships did not remain clandestine for long – when Shilpa found out, she was rightly livid. Following a fight, she and her 4-year-old decamped to her parents’ house. Before she could return to her own home, the March 24, 2020 India-wide lockdown went into effect. The stay-at-home order kept her stuck at her childhood home for three weeks.

When she returned to her own house, one of the other women had already moved in. Her husband declared his intention to marry the woman, upon which Shilpa went directly to the Women’s Police Station to file a complaint. Her estranged husband appeared at the station, and agreed to a compromise. However, when Shilpa returned once again to the house, her husband refused to allow her in, assaulting her physically in the process.

Shilpa found out about AALI via the court. She had gone to court for a pre-litigation hearing, but her husband failed to appear. AALI assisted Shilpa in filing a First Information Report (FIR, or police report). She later received a notice that her husband had applied for interim bail at the court. With AALI’s support, she took the opportunity to also appear before the court and demand a divorce. The court ruled in her favor – dissolving the marriage and awarding her a settlement of Rs 5 lakh (over $7000 USD).

AALI’s advocacy succeeded for Shilpa and her daughter, who now have a chance at a new beginning, free of the trauma and tumult of a broken home.

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