STREELEKHA

Streelekha is a feminist bookstore based in Bangalore, South India. It is a sister concern of Vimochana, an activist organisation based in the same city. The women at Vimochana and Streelekha have been working in and around Karnataka for the last 17 years, mostly to protest and defend the rights of women wherever and whenever they have been violated. They have reached out to women who are victimised for dowry and either killed, driven to suicide or are forced to leave violent home situations, women who are victims of rape, sexual harassment, wife beating, of bigamous husbands or desertion etc.

They have observed an increase in all forms of violence against women in recent years. "At our weekly open house at this shelter," said Celine, a Vimochana woman, "we find more and more women coming even from remote places. Most often they are brought by parents or friends, but sometimes they come alone." Their intervention ranges from counselling to registering police cases and taking legal action in the court of law. Sometimes they organise local social boycotts in the neighbourhood of the tormentors and help the women to remove their possesions from the marital home. The Bangalore police who are now quite co-operative with the Vimochana activists help by registering cases and sometimes by providing protection.

Of course such activism can have its kickback. Most of the Vimochana women have faced threats to their lives. They have had their houses robbed and have been assaulted by anti-social elements.

And yet the battle has its moments of triumph too. A woman who was once a victim of wife-beating has become a lawer and fights cases in the law court for other victims. Corinne Kumar, Denna Fernandes, Madhu Bhusan and others who form the core group of Vimochana formulate strategies and tackle issues at a personalised level. The various activities of Vimochana include holding public meetings, poetry readings in parks and organising women's film festivals. They hold a public demonstration near a busy city circle every week dressed in black, remaining totally silent and waving placards.

Streelekha and Vimochana can be contacted at:

Streelekha
a womans's book place
33/1-9, Thyagaraja Layout
Jaibharath Nagar, M S Nagar P O
Bangalore 560033
India
Tel: 91 80 25492783
Email: streelekha@vsnl.net