Our Stories

Razia (name changed) is a resident of the Dhorwada community in Dharavi. Her story began in 2003 when she married Santosh. Santosh, who had gone to the extent of converting to Islam in order to marry Razia, had now disappeared from Razia's life. Razia was left to fend for herself and her infant daughter. Desperate, she approached the Center for Vulnerable Women and Children (CVWC) in August 2007. Her expectation was that the center would help locate her husband and facilitate a reconciliation between them.

As with all victims, Razia was counseled by our staff to make her aware of her own needs and expectations. The staff helped Razia locate her husband who was already married to another woman with whom he had 2 children.

An all-inclusive intervention that included Razia, Santosh and Santosh's other wife was facilitated by our staff. Razia was counseled on her legal rights as a wife, and was empowered by being made a part of both the negotiations that followed and the solution. With the aid of the intervention action process, she felt confident of not wanting to stay married to Santosh and demanded monetary compensation from him as a form of retribution. A financial settlement of Rs. 100,000 was reached that allowed Razia to make a head start in creating a good life for herself and for her daughter.

In Razia's words, “Whenever I come to the Centre, I feel happy to meet with the staff. They have become my support system. I will go ahead in life leaving behind all my problems.

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Manisha is a member of our Aahaar Women's Group #5. She has an effervescent personality and an endless level of energy. Manisha makes a meager living by selling brooms and utensils and lives in the Kunchikorve Society with her husband, mother-in-law and an 8-month old son. Because of pressure from her mother-in-law, Manisha continued to exclusively breastfeed her baby despite her demanding work schedule.

This not only put a stress on Manisha physically, but also compromised the nutritional needs of the baby. After attending one of our educational classes focusing on food and nutrition, Manisha recognized the importance of adding complementary feeds to the baby’s diet. Despite strong opposition from both her mother-in-law and husband, she insisted upon providing the child with complementary feeds in addition to breast milk.

Manisha now takes her baby boy with her to work. With her new found knowledge on nutrition, she feeds the child every 3 hours with foods like khichadi (rice) and other semi-solid foods. Manisha is confident and happy in her ability to keep her son healthy and well-fed.

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Jaya Kanji, 33-years-old, approached CVWC in an acute state of crisis, as her mother-in-law was not ready to keep her in the house. Jaya’s husband, an alcoholic, had passed away a year ago after 9 years of marriage. They have a 7-year-old son. She and her husband were living separately, but a year before her husband passed away her mother-in-law brought her ailing son to her house to nurse him. She was not ready to take Jaya, since she was disappointed that Jaya did not give a sufficient dowry. The husband anyhow convinced Jaya that gradually he would impress upon his mother to bring Jaya home.

Jaya was already under a lot of stress living and managing on her own without her husband and she realized that her mother-in-law was not nursing her son properly as his condition deteriorated. It was Jaya who took him to the hospital and provided for his treatment. But it was too late and he died.

After the husband’s death her mother in-law, due to pressure from other community people, had to accept Jaya in her house. Her mother in-law subjected Jaya to psychological abuse and made her feel responsible for her husband’s death. Her sister in-law supported the abuse. The mother in-law stopped eating food made by Jaya, derided her for getting dressed well, and going to work. Jaya was seen as a characterless woman to both of them. She continued to live in such a situation, but one day her mother in-law decided to sell the house and went to live with her daughter. Jaya’s life crumbled as she had nowhere to go and nobody to help her. She was extremely depressed and wanted to end her life along with her son in order to exonerate herself form this agony.

A community woman informed her about CVWC’s work and brought her to the Centre. Jaya was provided emotional support and her problem was understood. Her consent was taken to call her mother in-law to the centre for negotiation. The mother-in-law refused to relent and negotiate about anything unless her daughter was in the picture. The next day a family meeting was carried out and it was decided that the mother in-law would not ask her to leave the house and Jaya will also cooperate and stay well. And in the future if the mother in-law sells the house Jaya will get her share.

That same evening her mother-in-law went against the agreement by dragging her to another community based organization under the pretext of taking her to some common relative. In that meeting it was decided that the mother in-law will immediately sell the house that was to be sold for Rs.2 lakhs and Jaya would get her share of Rs. 50,000. She was forcefully made to sign a paper prepared by the representative of the other organization. The next day Jaya came and reported everything to the Centre. Jaya requested one of the workers to be present when they give her the money. In the mean time the mothering-law sold the house and Jaya was rendered homeless. She had to go and stay with her sister in a very small room for sometime. Jaya and the Centre staff kept on waiting for the meeting to happen and following up on the same. After pressure was added, finally the last settlement meeting was arranged and Jaya was given only Rs. 32,000. The NGO stated that Rs. 18,000 was their charges for carrying out the settlement. Jaya did not agree to that and asked for her entire share as decided. The NGO representatives were not willing to listen to her.

Jaya was then shown the way to file a police complaint in order to retrieve the whole amount. The Centre’s staff helped her to file a complaint in the police station. The entire situation was explained and then it was decided to confront the NGO representatives. Finally, the Centre managed to give Jaya justice and her share of money. Jaya moved to another house with her son and the Centre also helped her to look for a permanent job. She is presently working and continues to stay in touch with the Centre and participate in its different programs.

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Health posts are to provide primary health care services to urban poor in the city of Mumbai. The health programs conducted through health posts are mainly of preventive and promotive nature. The infrastructure conditions of these health posts as of today are not sufficient to run these services unless they are assessed and upgraded to a standard level and those requirements vary by health post.

The SNEHA team contacted Inner Wheel club with an appeal to provide financial help for upgrading health posts. SNEHA’s emphasis that health posts have a huge potential for catering to the health needs of the urban poor, triggered interest in the Inner Wheel club Bombay North Island zonal president to upgrade her local health post, namely the Government Colony from H/E ward.

The Government Colony health post has 14,000 children receiving polio dose and the population is more than 2 lakhs. After the July 26, 2005 floods, Inner Wheel collected money and resources for affected people, but they also used the money for upgrading the health post.

Inner Wheel members first met Dr. Deepali (Full Time Medical Officer) and visited the area. They saw the condition of the health post and the population it covered. Dr. Deepali said the gynecology OPD is a major need for them; there was also no furniture or fans and windows were broken. Inner Wheel met the Deputy Executive Health Officer along with SNEHA staff in what was an encouraging meeting. The Inner Wheel President spoke to a contractor, took estimations, and appealed to her club members to donate money. They also organized a charity show for raising funds. A total of 42 Inner Wheel members currently staying in the area helped generously for fundraising. Repairing work of approximately Rs. 47,700 was completed. The Club also donated equipments like a sterilizer, stethoscope, baby weighing scale, etc. The total amount spent on this health post was Rs. 690,175.

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Anxious, 23-year old ‘Shabana,’ pregnant for the first time, reported with labor pain to a municipal maternity home at 5.00pm on a rainy Thursday.

The doctors and nurses had just finished their training and scrambled back to their places of work. Shabana complained to the nurse that she was having a lot of pain and was continuously passing uterine water and blood. The nurse assured her, made her lie on the labor table, and examined her. To her dismay, the nurse found all the signs of Shabana’s unborn baby in distress for life. Shabana had already lost a lot of uterine water; the unborn baby in distress was contaminating this water and so running further risks for hindered breathing. The nurse summoned the doctor immediately.

The doctor found herself in a complicated situation, as Shabana was in advance labor and therefore it was risky to transfer her to a major hospital where advance intensive care facilities for the baby would be available. However, she did not want to run the risk of a sick baby arriving on the way to the major hospital. The doctor suddenly remembered the good rapport that she had developed during the training program with the consultants of the same major hospital. It was then a smooth run as she followed all the instructions the consultants gave for managing the precarious baby.

The little baby, Rehana, arrived healthy, pink and crying well – who otherwise would have come into this world gasping for breath, blue, listless and nearly dying.

The doctors and nurses of the maternity home were grateful for the training program as it gave them somebody with knowledge and experience to lean on in times of crisis and to help them save the lives of such Shabanas and Rehanas.

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