HARC conducts legal awareness camps

(UNI) Tuesday, March 10 1998

DEHRADUN: Four hundred women from the remote villages of Garhwal discussed their problems related to maintenance, property rights and desertion at the camps organised recently in the Tehri district of Garhwal by the Himalayan Action Research Centre (HARC). Here is a Doon based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO). Most of the legal problems which came to light during the camps, held in the remote areas of Megadhar and Doni, were related to desertion of wives by husbands without providing any maintenance. Women groups from about twelve surrounding villages participated in the camps said Ms Chhaya Kunwar, co-ordinator of the HARC's women wing.

``Today, women of Uttarakhand were exposed to violence in the form of dowry-related violence, desertion by husbands, remarriage by men without divorcing the first wife and unequal treatment by their families'', Ms Kunwar said.

The women wing of the HARC has been working for long for the development of hill women. As problems faced by these women due to lack of legal awareness were on the rise, the women wing had committed itself to creating legal awareness among them and strengthen them to protect themselves from exploitation.

Mrs Sushila Joshi, president of a Mahila Mandal Dal, said during the camp that due to excessive workload and less exposure, women of Garhwal and Kumaon were ignorant about their rights and the law of the land. Marital disputes and liquor consumption by men were the major problems affecting these women, she added.

Illiteracy, ignorance, lack of awareness and poverty expose the hill people, especially women, to all kinds of atrocities. Women in this area are often made victims of oppressive social and cultural traditions.

Participants at the workshops said that the legal information made available to them by the HARC earlier had been of great use and generated awareness among them. They also expressed regret at the fact that though the hill women were the backbone of the region's economy, not a single piece of land was ever given to them in their name having no joint property right, they had to suffer when their husbands died or left the house without giving them any share in the property.

Ms Kanwar said that NGOs could play a major role in creating legal awareness among these hill women and thus bring about their upliftment by providing concrete, reliable and accessible information to women organisations and voluntary bodies in the region.