Mahila Panchayat Project (Funder: Delhi Women Commission)

Mahila Panchayat (MP) was launched in the year 2001 by the Delhi Commission for Women. It is an initiative taken up for legal empowerment of women and for distress redressal at the community level. Groups of community women, identified by NGOs, form a panchayat in their area, take up local disputes, counsel the two parties and assist them in reducing violence and disputes in their locality. There are two para-legal workers in a panchayat. These women are selected from the community, are trained in the different laws pertaining to women and guided in the process of handling a case and counselling women in distress. SES has been running two Mahila Panchayats in Laxmi Nagar and Jagat Puri area with the support of Delhi Commission of Women. Mahila Panchayat has a group of 50 women who are actively working for spreading awareness among the women in the community about their legal rights and provide them family as well as individual counselling. SES organized various legal rights workshops by advocates from Delhi Legal Aid Services Authority, camps for minorities, seminars on mental health of women, helping old-aged widows and we have succeeded in uniting thousands of families in distress.

Emergency & Crisis Response Rape Crisis Cell (RCC) Project Funded by (Delhi Women Commission)

SES has been running Rape Crises Cells with the support of Delhi Commission for Women. In our organization, currently there are twenty-six advocates who are working in the RCC program in three districts of Delhi (East, West and Northeast) which covers fifteen advocates appointed in POCSO, seven in Special Fast Track Courts (SFTC) and two in Juvenile Justice Boards (JJB), with one legal supervisor and one assistant legal supervisor taking care of the functioning of all lawyers. There are a total of 23 advocates who are working in the POCSO and SFTC for assisting the rape victims during their entire court proceedings. There are so many barriers in obtaining justice and critical support services in rape cases. In such cases our advocates stand firmly with the victims and provides them with social-mental support & legal counselling before recording their statement under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and thus help in ensuring justice for the victims and appropriate action against the perpetrators. Our Advocates also help the victims in getting their grants released for financial support including education, health, and livelihood.

Crisis Intervention Centre (CIC) Project (Funder: The Delhi Women Commission)
SES has been running CIC program in 3 districts of Delhi namely, Southwest, Dwarka and West to provide crisis intervention for rape victims, their families and community members close to the victim. Our counsellors are diligently working with victims to reduce the ongoing trauma and provide counselling. We ensure the confidentiality of the victim and provide support to the victim in some of the legal proceedings such as M.L.C., First Information Report (FIR), shelter etc. During the year our team handed 26,588 cases.

Mobile Helpline Number (181) (Funder: Delhi Women Commission)

To help women in distress 24×7, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) started the phone ‘Helpline181’ in March 2000. The phone number is advertised through multiple media to build awareness amongst the public and the women in distress are encouraged to seek counselling as per need throughout the year. SES has been running mobile helpline in southwest, Najafgarh and East districts of Delhi. Our trained counsellors are dedicatedly working in eight hours shift, 24×7 throughout the year. Our counsellors listen to the problems over the helpline and counsel the complainant to solve their problem as soon as possible and thus get MLC and/or FIR of the case registered. Problems which require counselling of the other party (accused) are advised to be registered in the commission personally. We are efficiently dealing with more than five hundred cases in a month.