In India, a violent crime against a woman is committed every three minutes, a woman is r***d every 29 minutes, dowry death occurs every 77 minutes. These crimes of violence occur at the hands of a husband or male family member. The most dangerous place to be for a woman in India is not at the bus stop, not walking home from work at night or from male co-workers, but in their own homes. One contri
buting factor is engrained cultural bias. According to Unicef’s Global Report Card on Adolescents 2012, 57% of boys and 53% of girls in India think a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife. The challenges to halt this tidal wave of violence against women are deeply complex. In a country of 1.3 billion people – 67% of women functionally illiterate – creating an effective, lasting program to address such an enormous problem takes courage, foresight and commitment. Operation PeaceMaker works with the root cause of violence against women by targeting its most invisible domain – the home. PeaceMakers, true to their name, seek to strengthen healthy family structures through offering counseling to entire families, and where needed/wanted will help a victim seek legal action. Rather than
returning a slap with a slap, PeaceMakers use education to deter violence and give women & girls a voice in their homes. Of the women that have received counseling, 74% had never sought any kind of help prior to meeting a PeaceMaker and 43% of these women believe their only recourse was/is through a PeaceMaker. Operation PeaceMaker is an initiative of My Choices Foundation.
