Seva Mandir is working with rural communities of southern Rajasthan for more than 50 years and women's empowerment is one of the important thematic areas of our work.

Every year, as part of 16 days of Activism against Gender-based Violence held from 25th November to 10 December, we conduct different events to sensitize communities and staff. As part of this celebration, this year we called our campaign Unmukt (lit meaning : free)

This year, sessions were held at Kherwara, Kotda, Jadol, Badgaon, Girwa, Kumbhalgarh and in Kankroli blocks with sessions including group discussions around different forms of violence, sexism, taboos of menstrual hygiene existing in villages.

Four major webinars were organized during the campaign to take place during the International Anti-Violence Fortnight starting on 25th November.

Opening the campaign , Mr. Bharat Kumar from Vishakha NGO, Jaipur, gave his views on the topic - ‘Building Better Relationship at Work Place' on the 27th of November, where he said that mutual trust and continuous communication among the teams is the only key to build better relationships at the workplace. Bharat added "Violence begins with our urge to control. It needs longer time and commitment to build a culture of trust and understanding."

The second webinar (1 December) - Ritika Revathi Subramaniam gave her views on the threat to women and young girls are in the age of COVID-19. Subramaniam believes the novel coronavirus is further deepening the inequalities and exposing the existing vulnerabilities of our social systems.
Violence against women and girls, already one of the most serious social problems we face, becomes worse in every type of emergency, and the COVID19 crisis is no different.
"In India's villages, some desperate parents see child marriage as a means to survive the pandemic. We must understand adolescent girls are a unique group to further understand their vulnerabilities and experiences " Reetika

The second webinar (December 5) was about ‘Protecting children in the digital era'.
Benita Itty discussed the subject of protecting children, in her views, Benita Itty believes that the increasing use of the internet is increasing the risk of crime on children in the current era, which cannot be ignored.

The fourth and final webinar (8 December), the team was joined by the Mr. Harish Sadani, founder and chief operator of the Mumbai-based organization ‘Men Against Violence and Abuse'. In the last discussion of the International Anti-Violence Fortnight, he discussed masculinity and the burdens attached to it - how little boys learn its meaning from film, television and men around them.

"Violence of any kind is intolerable. The most unacceptable part of it is the mental trauma which has long aftereffect on a person."
- Ronak Shah, Chief Executive

Through the campaign, our aim was to build spaces within organisation and communities about violence and deepen our understanding about it.