India
Meet Our Member:
Jan Mitra Nyas/Peoples’ Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR)
“Poverty, caste system, patriarchy are the main reasons behind torture and organised violence in this country,” says the founder and CEO of the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR), IRCT’s members in Varanasi, India’s spiritual capital.
Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi has been working with the poorest of the poor in India for three decades, and knows very well the link between social deprivation and torture.
Over the years, Dr Lenin estimates his organisation and its network have helped some 300,000 survivors of violence and freed 40,000 bonded labourers. “What’s our learning? If you provide humanitarian support, with the participation of the survivor … you create the hope, honour, and human dignity. These are the three Hs for the survivors.”
Watch how PVCHR makes a huge difference for survivors of torture
Meet Our Member:
Vasavya Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims (VRCT)
Dr Bollineni Keerthi has dedicated her life to helping women and children suffering from violence and torture in India.
Today she leads IRCT’s member centre the Vasavya Rehabilitation Centre for Victims of Torture in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. “Women design strategies which are practical. They are also empathetic and committed to rehabilitation,” says Dr Keerthi. “Why? Many have inside knowledge of the problem.”
Watch Dr Keerthi explain about her experience in working with women in india
“Poverty, caste system, patriarchy are the main reasons behind torture and organised violence in this country. There is a direct link between poverty and torture.”
Highlight:
Breaking the Link between Poverty and Torture
Poverty is a leading risk factor for torture: Being poor makes you more likely to be tortured. And being tortured makes you more likely to be poor, as survivors struggle to return to work, putting them at risk of falling into a cycle of poverty and social exclusion, aggravating the trauma already suffered.
IRCT member The People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) has worked for decades to overcome such discrimination and break the link between poverty and torture.
With a grant for improved rehabilitation from UATC, 696 survivors received support, including testimonial therapy, legal support, livelihood, and counselling to publicly voice their concerns and seek justice.
In individual honour ceremonies survivors present their testimonies and receive a certificate, symbolising their transition from victims to empowered advocates for justice.
Credit: PVCHR
In Focus:
Livelihoods for Survivors
Across India, police routinely use excessive violence and other torture against India’s lowest, poorest caste – the Dalit – with impunity. Over half of all torture survivors treated around the world live in poverty.
Ghurahu, a day labourer from Varanasi and a member of India’s most marginalised caste, was unlawfully arrested and beaten unconscious by police, Ghurahu was left too traumatised to return to work as a day labourer earning just €1.4 a day. “The torture left me with problems,” says Ghurahu. “If I do not earn then my family will starve.”
Healing began with talking therapy at IRCT member PVCHR, who also filed a complaint against the police through the National Human Rights Commission. But Ghurahu’s life was also improved by some very practical assistance: Seeds to plant his own kitchen garden.
watch how PVCHR helps people establish livelihoods as part of rehabilitation
Credit: PVCHR
Credit: PVCHR
Credit: PVCHR
“We give skills to women survivors of domestic abuse to build confidence to live with dignity and respect.”
Research:
Torture Journal
