172 women attended legal guidance sessions on the Domestic Violence Act

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act has been in force since 2005. In the villages we work in, the more common situation is not that the law is absent but that no one has ever explained it — what counts as domestic violence under the Act, who a Protection Officer is, what a residence order does, and that none of it requires filing a criminal case first.

172 women attended legal guidance sessions during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.

The sessions were run as guidance rather than lecture, because the questions that matter are specific: whether a woman can stay in the shared household, what happens to the children, what evidence is needed, and what it costs.

Knowing the provision does not by itself make it usable. But a woman who knows that a remedy exists, and roughly how to reach it, is in a different position from one who has been told the matter is private.

The campaign ran from 25 November to 10 December across the field area, and not only with women. It was marked at village schools as well, with staff, teachers and children together — which is early, and meant to be.

Marking the 16 Days at a village school, December 2025.