Touching Lives Through Snehitha
Jesmine George
Counselor - SNEHITHA,
Ernakulam District
Since last five years, as a team member
of Snehitha, I got a lot of opportunities to explore myself and get motivated
to work as an agent for change. Though gender has been discussed and questioned
years before, the cases reporting in Snehitha indicates that several hidden
discrimination exists which are needed to be discussed further.
Recently Snehitha intervened in the case
of a 23 year old lady, who got married four years before, to a person of
different religion. For this reason the client’s kin ceased all relations with
her. When the case was registered to Snehitha the client’s concern was that she
wants to move away from her spouse’s family. The spouse and his family also
tried to abandon her for the reason that she is seen with a nearby guy in a
suspectable situation. The entire family was blaming extramarital relationship
in her.
When the community counselor interacted
with the client, she denied the relationship and told her that she was
blackmailed by that guy and attacked by him. He is a stranger for her and he
blackmailed her by saying that he had her bathroom videos with him. From the
observation and the interaction with the client and her neighbors the community
counselor suspected whether the client has some grievances inside the family.
The client, her husband and in laws were called to Snehitha for discussing the
issue. Through counseling Snehitha gained a rapport with the client, and she
ventilated all her difficulties she faced during her last four years. Her
situation was almost like a domesticated parrot. Through counseling mediation
and providing family life education Snehitha intervened in her felt needs and
improved the quality of her marital life. The husband who came Snehitha with
enthusiasm to expel her from his life is convinced and changed totally. He took
a strong decision to lead a better life with the client by ignoring all stigmas
associating with them and by breaking the present gender based culture inside
the family.
Snehitha through its network found to be
more accessible to the people in need and even they felt more comfortable to
report their issues. Besides the law and order, Snehitha, through its
counseling, mediation, follow-ups and by converging with other Kudumbashree
programs, improved the quality of living of several people and tried to
distract stereotypes associating with gender.
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