Sakshi NGO

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Sakshi

Motto	Everyday Equality
Successor	Smita Bharti
Formation	October 1992 (October 1992)
Founders	Naina Kapur, Jasjit Purewal
Type	Non-governmental organization
Location	New Delhi, Mumbai
Fields	Communication for Development , Social practice (art), Gender Equality, Child Sexual Abuse, Health , Education
Website	www.sakshi.org.in

Sakshi (Regd. NGO) is a rights-based capacity building, development organisation founded in 1992 by lawyer, Naina Kapur and journalist Jasjit Purewal in New Delhi, with a special focus on sexual violence and violence against women and children. Sakshi is the Indian Subcontinent's pioneering organisation dealing with Child Sexual Abuse and has spearheaded the legal movement to comprehensively recognise Child sexual abuse laws in India.

Sakshi's work has led to the formation of the Vishaka Guidelines in 1997 and the subsequent development of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, drafting of a reformative sexual assault law, design of special procedures for women and children in sexual violence cases, creative resource development and a sustainable Asia Pacific Advisory Forum on Judicial Education on Equality Issues, selected as a "Best Practice" programme in 2001 by UNIFEM. It has also become a credible model for judicial education on human rights in emerging International Courts.

History

In the early 1990s, Sakshi's founders Naina Kapur, a lawyer and Jasjit Purewal, a journalist began to consider what they could do to confront the silence that shrouds sexual violence in the Indian society. Both women had been addressing violence against women in their respective professions, but a gang-rape of a girl in custody by police officers triggered off the impetus to channel their work through a formal organisation, which could address violence against women in a concerted way. The case was brought to court and the offenders found guilty. Subsequently, however, the Supreme Court of India reduced the sentence of the offenders by five years, because of the woman's questionable conduct.

This case led Naina and Jasjit to question the efficacy of the legal system and the process of justice, and to explore the needs of women at the grassroots who face different forms of sexual violence, which continue to be a more silent and ignored from of assault in India. They realised that children (especially girl children) are the most tragic victims of sexual violence; but in a society which places greater value on female chastity than on women's security and freedom, even, even child victims are forbidden to speak. In fact, any woman who has faced such violence is looked down on by Indian society as having lost her dignity and purity. Because of such beliefs, a woman whose body is violated, also risks losing her self-respect and self-esteem in society.

These realities and the deafening silence around the issue finally led to the setting up of Sakshi as a Non-governmental organization in October 1992. From the start Sakshi defined itself as a violence intervention centre. Following the Bhanwari Devi case, Sakshi lobbied for the issue of Sexual Harassmentat work to be addressed in the Indian Legal system. For the first time in India, the Supreme Court passed a set of Guidelines on Sexual Harassment at the workplace, the Vishaka Guidelines in August 1997 which subsequently led to the formation of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.

In 1995, Sakshi dealt with a repeated instance of abuse of an 8-year old by her father who was an undersecretary of the Government of India. Sakshi had to come to terms with the fact of having Child Sexual Abuse be defined best as an unnatural act and therefore to be punished by an ancient anti-sodomy law Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code or at worst considered an act that "outrages the modesty of a woman" Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code and therefore to be treated leniently. For while recognising that the child had been wronged, the court could yet not bring itself to suggest a judicial interpretation of the act commensurate with the horrific nature of the crime. Commenting on the court's position, a Sakshi report noted:

Renu's trauma found scant understanding in the law. Legally, Renu was not raped because her vagina was never penetrated by her father's penis. All other violations of her various orifices, which were as or more painful, and equally or more humiliating did not deserve to be understood as rape of her body. Instead, the learned Additional Sessions Judged ruled that:

"Both the acts i.e. Insertion of finger in the anus and the vagina and putting male organ into the mouth of the prosecutrix are acts which are against the order of nature. In order to constitute an offence of rape, there has to be the use of the male organ, which must find place in the vagina of the prosecutrix. The word penetration does not connote penetration by a foreign object."

Subsequently, Sakshi filed a Public Interest Litigation Sakshi vs. Union of India asking for a redefinition of rape and a judicial interpretation of rape that would allow prosecution of Child Sexual Abuse. In this case the Law Commission of India was directed by the Supreme Court of India to respond to the specific issue raised in the petition. After the several meetings and consultation with Sakshi; the Law Commission of India in 2000 published its 172nd reports on the review of rape law.

The highlights of the 172nd Report are as follows:

• Rape should be replaced by the term sexual assault.
• All form of penetration should come under the purview of Sexual intercourse as contained in 375 of Indian penal code.

In the year of 2002 an amendment of Section 146 of the Indian Evidence Act was made. According to this amendment, it does not allow any type of cross examination of rape victims that directly or indirectly raise questions about the moral character of the rape victim also any types of question which is about the previous sexual experience of the victims. Additionally, The passage of a separate law on Child Sexual Abuse that was recommended by Sakshi, was finally accepted with the introduction of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) 2012 and provisions were made to ensure child friendly court procedures.

Over the years, several projects and programmes have evolved from the above activities. These have ranged from conducting paralegal workshops with women inmates of New Delhi's Tihar Jail, to gender-sensitization training programmes for the police, to research on a gender-based understanding of law in five Indian cities, to social art interventions for behaviour change, communication for development and programmes on awareness-raising on Child Sexual Abuse amongst students, counsellors, teachers, parents, police and the judiciary.

In 2007, Smita Bharti took over as the Executive Director of Sakshi. Today, a multi-disciplinary group of over 20 members run Sakshi. This team includes individuals from various backgrounds - law, sociology, economics, journalism, music, media and entertainment.Whether faced with an individual or a system (education, health, judiciary, police or NGOs), Sakshi's objective, with inclusion as one of its founding pillars, has been to make it's interventions holistic, long-term, and embracing of difference.

Timeline

• 1992 - Naina Kapur read a newspaper article on the case of a minor raped by police officers.

• 1993 - Sakshi was registered as a creative education centre dedicated to the practice of everyday equality and in particular assisting women, adolescents and children who are victims of gender violence.

• 1993-1994 - The founders of Sakshi travelled through different rural areas asking women what was their need in the area of justice. By and large women across responded with the greatest need as "our dignity remains intact". Thereafter Sakshi compiled a simple booklet on sexual abuse in 12 different languages for mass distribution. Sakshi started conducting training and awareness for women and communities on issues of gender violence and access to justice.

• 1995-1996 - Sakshi carried out an extensive study within India focused on determining the need for gender equality education for members of the judiciary. The study proved that gender discrimination existed in judicial decision-making in India and that judges were in real need of gender equality education. The purpose of embarking on an effort towards supplying this education was a need to ensure that judicial decision-making would be more equal and fair.

• 1997 - Sakshi was the force behind the Vishaka Guidelines, the judge made law on Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace.

• 1997-2007 - Naina Kapur started the Asia Pacific Advisory forum on Judicial Education on Equality Issues under the aegis of Chief Justice Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi. This was a unique model for creative leadership and equality education and its success lay in a breakthrough partnership between judges and NGOs in the South Asian Region. Sakshi was the coordinating agency for this network of five countries in the region; Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India.

• 2001 - This model was selected as the best practice program by UNIFEM. It has become a credible model for judicial education, which brought home the social reality of both, the women who experience violence and of those who sit in judgment upon them.

• 2004 - In Sakshi vs Union of India, Sakshi contended that the narrow understanding and application of rape under Section 375/376 IPC only to the cases of penile/vaginal penetration runs contrary to the existing contemporary understanding of rape as an intent to humiliate, violate and degrade a woman or child sexually and, therefore, adversely affects the sexual integrity and autonomy of women and children in violation of Article 21 of the Constitution.

• 2005 - Sakshi published Walking Wisdom, a training manual for judicial education on gender equality that emerged from the work done through the Asia Pacific Advisory Forum on Judicial Education on Equality Issues.

• 2007 - Sakshi published the highly acclaimed two-volume handbook entitled Senses & Soul- A Workshop on Sexuality. This rich resource pack is a creative inspiration for potential sexuality educators or for individual readers. The pack is equipped with a handbook of experiential exercises supported by six one minute films and a facilitator's guide on how to use these films. In addition, the pack includes a documentary film by Sakshi called Mirror Mirror on the Wall... Who am I After All? a 29-minute film which captures the positive and healthy spirit of one school's experience with Sakshi's sexuality education program.

• 2008- Everyday Equality a Social and behavior change communication Programme initiated in order to build capacities and spread awareness about Equality and Inclusiveness across the social strata through experiential learning workshops and mass communication mediums including theatre and films.

• 2010 - Sakshi was part of the consultation for the Sexual Assault Bill 2010.

• 2013 - Sakshi spearheaded many national level consultations to ensure that Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 is placed under the equality umbrella and upkeeps the progressive aspects of Vishaka Guidelines.

• 2015' - Senses & Soul; a handbook on POSH Act 2013, prepared by Smita Bharti and Naina Kapur.

• 2016 - Taare Jab Utare Zameen Par, a transformative initiative in association with Plan International with 500 street connected children, awakening their sense of identity, equipping them with their rights as citizens of India.

• 2017 - Sakshi was empanelled with the National Film Development Corporation of India as a Communication for Development agency with a focus on Gender Equality, Child Sexual Abuse and Social and Behaviour Change.

• 2018 - With the access granted by the Directorate of NSS, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Sakshi launched The Rakshin Project A comprehensive programme with content and coursework for 40,000 Colleges Pan-India to create 4 Million Champions of Change for POCSO Act 2012.

• 2019 - Sakshi launched S-Box a new-age, full service, not-for-profit production vertical with a focus on fostering change through Design, Performance, Media and catering to the creative needs of Development Organizations and CSR Divisions of Corporations.

Articles and publications

• Walking Wisdom - a training manual for judicial education on gender equality that emerged from the work done through the Asia Pacific Advisory Forum on Judicial Education on Equality Issues. It also contains a set of 8 CDS. Each disc has a special title:
• Women's inequality: presentation by Justice D.R.C. Campbell
• Challenging the normal: presentation by Naina Kapur
• Mental health impact of violence: presentation by Dr. Achal Bhagat
• Sita's daughters: a performance by Mallika Sarabhai
• Kahani meri tumhari: play by Sakshi and Trial and error : puppet show by Varun Narain
• Unkahee: play by Sakshi
• Substantive equality: presentation by Kathleen Mahoney
• Sexual assault (multimedia CD-ROM)

• Senses and Soul: A Resource Pack on Sexuality Education

• Child Sexual Abuse: Beyond...Fear, Secrecy and Shame.

• Alternative Report on The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW): Recommendation no. 19, Violence Against Women

• Have You Been Sexually Assaulted Guilty? Depressed? Angry? Voiceless (Ten Languages)

• Gender and Judges : A Judicial Point of View

• Female Sexuality: A journey within

• Sexual Harassment At the Workplace: What it is, What to do About It

• Report: Regional Perspectives on Gender Equality

• Making Linkage - I

• Making Linkage - II

• Impact of Inequality

• Engendering Justice

• Gender, Judges and Equality

• Report: Asia Pacific Advisory Forum on Judicial Education on Equality Issues

• The Asia Pacific Advisory Forum for Judicial Education on Gender Equality Issues - Human Rights and Equality - Volume - I

• The Asia Pacific Advisory Forum for Judicial Education on Gender Equality Issues - Human Rights and Equality - Volume - II

• Sexual Assault Law Reform

• Kshitij the Horizon

References

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