FAMILY COUNSELLING CENTRES:

A STUDY

[2011]
 FAMILY COUNSELLING CENTRES:
A STUDY

2011

National Institute of Public Cooperation & Child Development

Regional Centre, Gudamba, Kursi Road, Lucknow - 226026
 CONTENTS

S. No. Topics Page No.

1. Foreword i – ii
2. Chapter I
Introduction 1– 9
3. Chapter II
Research Design 10 – 13
4. Chapter III
The Profile of the Organizations and the FCCs 14 – 19
5. Chapter IV
The Counsellors 20 – 38
6. Chapter V
The Clients 39 – 49
7. Chapter VI
Case Studies 50 – 58
8. Chapter VII
Conclusions and Recommendations 59 – 63
9. Bibliography 64 – 66
 Foreword

Family is an oldest institution that has helped the human kind to survive all these
centuries. It is united by the ties of marriage, the members interacting and communicating
with each other in their respective roles of husband and wife, mother and father, son and
daughters etc. It provides an environment of love, belongingness security to its members,
which guarantees them marital peace, fulfillment and growth. But today, the scenario is
fast changing and the family, a very precious unit of the society is being threatened by
many factors.

In fact, it has been seen across the country that powerlessness among women is
directly proportional to the intensity to violence experienced by women. In the face of
widespread prevalence, domestic violence is not acknowledged and has remained
invisible from the public domain. Silence is maintained around this issue and it is
construed as an issue unworthy of legal or political attention. Phenomenon of domestic
violence is recognized as private affair and is kept under wraps because of concerns of
guilt, shame and secrecy. Interference into domestic privacy has traditionally been seen
as a greater evil than actual violence inflicted upon a woman.

The marital relationship is under increasing strain and becoming complex and
demanding. There are growing instances of divorce, marital discord, demand for dowry,
bride burning, violation of woman’s dignity etc.

In order to help couples with strained relations, marital discord and to provide the
warring factions of the family a platform to discuss their problems and to find solutions,
the scheme of Family Counselling Centres (FCCs) was launched by Government of India
in 1983. It is being implemented by Central Social Welfare Board through voluntary
organizations all across the country. The broad objective of the scheme is to provide
preventive and rehabilitation services to women and families who were victims of
atrocities, harassment and family mal-adjustments through crisis intervention and
systematic counselling.

Under the study a total of 11 FCCs were studied intensively from the states of
Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

The findings of the study revealed that it is a very useful scheme rendering unique
services of uniting families which were otherwise on the verge of collapse. Quite a few
case studies were presented in the report, which give an idea as to how these institutions
were instrumental in helping the families and individuals. Although the findings are
based on a small sample but it gives a fairly good understanding on the functioning of
FCCs in general, type of cases reported, technical manpower available with these
institutions, advocacy work carried out, kind of problems being faced by the councellors
and the Heads of NGOs in implementation of the scheme and it identifies areas which
needed strengthening for the effective organization of services at the FCCs. In fact, there
is a lot of scope of further research in the area after all the subject deals with family,
which is a backbone of any society.

I am grateful to Dr. S. P. Jain, Dr. Surender Singh and (Late) Professor S. P.

Srivastava the members of Research Advisory Committee for their invaluable technical
inputs and guidance in the study. I am also thankful to all Heads of NGOs, Counsellors of
FCCs, Jail authorities and the Clients for their cooperation in data collection of the study.

I would like to place on record my appreciation of the effort put in by Shri N.

Khan, Project In-charge for conducting the study and preparing the report.

I appreciate the contributions made by Dr. Mukta Gupta, Project Assistant in

preparation of tools, data collection and tabulation. I also appreciate Ms. Pooja Verma for
typing the report and designing the cover page.

(Madhu Agarwal)
Regional Director
Chapter I

Introduction
Indians perhaps, from the very beginning of their civilization, regarded marriage
as a sacrament, as a tie which once tied cannot be untied. The Hindu notion of
sacramental marriage differs from that of others. Derrett puts it succinctly thus: “the
intention of the sacrament is to make the husband and wife one, for physical and spiritual
purposes, for this life and for after lives.

Manu declared, to be mothers were women created and to be fathers men, the
Vedas ordain that dharma must be practiced by man together with his wife, himself and
his offspring. Husband and wife are enjoined to live in perpetual love, bliss and
happiness. A passage in Rig-Veda reads, Be thou (wife) mother of heroic children
devoted to Gods, be thou queen in thy father-in-laws household. May all Gods unite the
hearts of us two into one.

The wife is not just Patni (wife) but Dharmapatni (partner) in the performance of
duties, spiritual, religious and other. Among the Hindus, there are many Yagnas (religious
and spiritual sacrifices, rites and ceremonies), which a man without a wife cannot
perform. That is why she is called Dharmpatni. She is Ardhangini, half of her husband.
The concept of the unity of personality in Hindu law is at the higher plane, because a wife
is not merely the source of Artha and Kama but also of Dharma and Moksha. The Vedas
have ordained that Ðharma must be practiced by man together with his wife”.

Whereas, in the Muslim community the marriages are performed as per the
Muslim personal law “marriage (nikah) is defined to be a contract which has for its
object procreation and legalizing of children” it is not a sacrament although it is
considered to be a religious duty. It is essentially an agreement between the parties. The
terms and conditions are mostly governed by Muslim Personal Law the ‘Sharia’. A
marriage contract comes into immediate effect after the Nikha and it terminates on death
or divorce. It is an object of piety and devotion and necessary to restrain passions finding
expression in wrongs and therefore, obligatory. Mohammedan law definitely discourages
celibacy. No formalities or religious ceremonies are required for a Muslim marriage. As
mentioned by Sayed Ameer Ali in his Mohammedan Law, 5th edition, that the ‘Marriage
may be contracted amongst the sunnis and the shias through the agency of proxies or
vakils’.

In the Christian community marriages are considered as civil contract and

performed as per Indian Christian Marriage act, 1872. Basically, it was the same as the
previous regulation and Acts which were passed in India and the general pattern was the
English Common Law. In Section 4 of the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872, it is
provided that every marriage between persons, one or both of whom is, or are, a Christian
or Christians, shall be solemnized in accordance with the provisions of the act, and that
any such marriage solemnized other than in accordance with such provisions shall be
void.

The contract of marriage, by which man and woman are co-enjoined during life till
death or divorce shall separate them, is the most ancient, the most important, and the
most interesting of the domestic relations. Though correctly designated a civil contract, it
differs in sundry points from all other civil contracts; and chiefly in this, that is
indissoluble at the will of the parties.

Family

Family is an ancient institution which has helped mankind to survive over

centuries. It is united by the ties of marriage, blood or adoption, constituting a single
household, the members interacting and communicating with each other in their
respective roles of husband and wife, mother and father, son and daughter, brother and
sister” (Burgers and Locke, 1945). It provides an environment of love, belongingness,
security and blissful atmosphere to its members, which guarantees them marital peace,
fulfillment and growth and all these should come from within. A family is a happy one if
its entire atmosphere is charged with love and affection and each and every member cares
for the feelings and welfare of other members of the family. In such an atmosphere of
love and consideration every member of the family comes to acquire the right to give and
take, the right to love and to be loved and to respect and be respected.

It does not however, mean that there would be no differences or provocations or

quarrels on minor matters among the members of the family. Such quarrels have always
existed between siblings, between parents and children or husband and wife. But still, in
well-knit family, ties of relationship are generally strong and they do not get easily
broken by petty quarrels. Quarrels may be equated to spices in food, which at times
irritate the throat but still add flavour to the food. When sorted out they help to bring
about greater understanding. The members come to understand their rightful place in the
family along with the realization of their obligations and limitations; they come to realize
the need for one another, which brings them, closer to each other. In other words, if in
these quarrels no one crosses the line of propriety, family continues with a sense of
belongingness.

Further, the joint family considered by social historians and sociologists as one of
the pillars of Indian social organization along with caste and village community.
Members of the joint family share or jointly own many of their resources. They rely on
their family elders for major decisions and keep up mutual obligations to each other; get
together on important ritual occasions such as birth, marriages and deaths as well as on
certain festivals; feel profoundly affected by the reputation of other branches of the
family and the emotional binding, the support systems were very strong. The disputes of
any kind were amicably settled without any outside interference.

But today, the scenario is fast changing and the family, a very precious unit of the
society is being threatened by many extraneous factors. The marital relationship is under
increasing strain. It is becoming complex and demanding. Present day women are more
educated, more economically independent and they contribute substantially to the
workforce and family kitty. Yet, they are more vulnerable to violence today than before
due to various factors particularly when violence is perpetrated by her own family
members and safety and security of her so called home is taken away by those whom she
trusted. In fact violence against women is a global epidemic that kills, brutalizes, harms
women physically, psychologically, sexually and economically. It is one of the most
persistent forms of human rights violation that deny women equality, security, dignity,
self worth and freedom.

Family is considered as a secure place by many. However, in reality it may not be

true, especially for a woman, who is not only being abused or tortured as a wife but also
discriminated as a daughter and neglected as a widow. In fact, woman’s right is violated
from ‘womb to tomb’. Family violence manifests itself in various forms varying from
foeticide to honour killing, bride burning or dowry deaths to marital rape and in fact
witch hunting. At home, violence is usually perpetrated by males who are or who have
been, in positions of trust and intimacy and power-husbands, fathers, father-in-law, step
fathers, brothers, uncles, etc. Traditional values give men propriety rights over women
within families. A number of factors including female seclusion, confinement to the
peripheri within household and lack of productive opportunities further marginalized
women. In fact, it has been seen across the length and breadth of the country that
powerlessness among women is directly proportional to the intensity to violence
experienced by women. Despite this widespread prevalence, domestic violence is not
customarily acknowledged and has remained invisible from the public domain. Silence is
maintained around this issue and it is construed as an issue unworthy of legal or political
attention. Phenomenon of domestic violence is recognized as private affair and is kept
under wraps because of concerns of guilt, shame and secrecy. Interference into domestic
privacy has traditionally been seen as a greater evil than actual violence inflected upon a
woman.

The Prevention of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 defines domestic
violence as abuse or threat of abuse that is physical, sexual, verbal, emotional and
economic. Harassment by way of unlawful dowry demands to the woman or her relatives
has also been covered under this definition.
Situation of Women

The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-III) carried out in 29 states during
2005 – 06 and released in 2007 revealed that 37 per cent married women in the country
were victims of physical or sexual abuse by their husbands. Over 40 per cent of Indian
women have experienced domestic violence at some point in their married lives, and
nearly 55 per cent thought that spousal abuse is warranted in several circumstances. The
survey showed that country wide more women face violence in rural areas (40.2 per cent)
as compared to those in the urban areas (30.4 per cent). The survey found that over a
third of women who had been married at any point in their lives said they had been
pushed, slapped, shaken or otherwise attacked by their husbands at least once. Slapping
was the most common act of physical violence by husbands. The survey also found that
one in six wives had been emotionally abused by their husbands.

As per NFHS-III nearly 45 per cent of women in the country, aged between 20 and
24 years are married off before they reached 18 years the legal age to marry. The number
is over 50 per cent in eight states. The NFHS-II also had revealed that an overwhelming
majority of women who reported domestic violence were first assaulted by their husbands
within two years of their marriage. According to the figures, 62 per cent experienced
physical or sexual violence within the first two years of marriage, while 32 per cent
experienced violence in the first five years.

Women belonging to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities reportedly

experienced the most spousal abuse, with one in three reporting having been beaten by
their husbands according to NHFS-III data. Ironically, Buddhist women reported the
highest levels of violence (41 per cent) followed by Muslim and Hindu women (35 – 34
per cent) and Sikh and Christian women (28 – 26 per cent). Women from the Jain
community reported the lowest levels of violence (13 per cent). A major contributing
factor was observed to be low levels of education 47 per cent of women who reported
domestic violence had no education, compared with 12 per cent among women with 12
or more years of education. The figure was 16 per cent for women who had completed
high school.

With regard to attitudes to domestic violence, the NFHS III revealed that 41 per
cent of women thought that husbands were justified in slapping their wives if the latter
showed disrespect to their in-laws. Meanwhile, a substantial 35 per cent of women
thought they deserved a beating at the hands of their spouses if they neglected doing the
household chores or looking after their children. Nearly 51 per cent of the 75,000 Indian
men surveyed also think hitting or beating their wives is acceptable for some reasons,
specially being disrespectful to in-laws. A fewer number believe that poor cooking or
refusing sex are reasons for physically assaulting their wives. This may be because often
“men are brought up being taught that beating up their wives isn’t wrong, while women
are told that being assaulted by their husbands is acceptable. Girls are taught that they can
be punished by their husbands for disobedience”.

There is a need to change this attitude of not only men and women but also the
judiciary and the police personnel who are involved in implementing the law against
domestic violence. In a study conducted in 1996, by SAKSHI, a feminist legal resource
group, interviewed 109 judges to assess their attitudes to violence against women, and
found a disturbing prevalence of stereotyped assumptions. According to this study 48 per
cent judges believed that there were certain occasions when it was justifiable for a
husband to slap his wife. 74 per cent were of the view that the preservation of the family
should be the woman’s primary concern, even if she faces violence. Half of the judicial
officials interviewed opined that child sexual abuse is not common. 68 per cent held that
“provocative” clothes are an invitation to sexual assault. The study found that 34 per cent
of those interviewed believed that dowry has an inherent cultural value. 55 per cent
argued that the moral character of a woman is relevant in cases of sexual abuse. Nine per
cent of the judges opined that a woman who says “no” to sexual intercourse often means
“yes”. These attitudes co-existed with a definite awareness of the implications and
seriousness of violence against women.

However, during recent years, in response to years of sustained legal activism by

the women’s movement, the Supreme Court has begun to apply equality principles to
address issues of violence against women. Apart from the landmark ruling on sexual
harassment in the workplace in 1997, judgements have also begun to apply international
conventions like CEDAW and the Convention on Human Rights. However, these have so
far had limited systemic impact, as frequently they have applied formal notions of
equality without taking into account specific factors that disadvantage women. Thus,
issues of virginity, chastity and marital status continue to be important concerns in many
judgements.

It has been stated that the magnitude of the problem of domestic violence or its
prevalence cannot be ascertained precisely because it is a crime that is under recorded
and under reported. Many women are not aware of law and the legal procedure while
others accept and justify violence. Stigma, shame, fear of reprisal, lack of confidence in,
or fear of, the legal system and the legal costs involved make women reluctant to report
incidents of violence.

Thus, the increasing rate of crime against women reflects urgency to ensure the
availability of legal remedies. It also indicates that steps must be taken to ensure that laws
dealing with violence against women are there and these laws are implemented properly.
It also points out the fact that law alone is not sufficient what is required is will to
implement the law and mind set and attitude to address the issue of domestic violence.
Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA)

Several laws and policies have been formulated by the Government of India after
independence to protect and empower women. The women’s movement in India has
continuously advocated for laws and policies that protect women and facilitate women’s
empowerment. To address the issue of dowry and domestic violence, amendments have
been sought in the criminal law in India in the year 1983, and a new provision has been
inserted i.e. Section 498 – A of the Indian Penal Code which penalize the husbands and
his relatives who inflict cruelty on a married women. However, it was seen that the
women who face domestic violence when attempts to seek justice under the criminal law,
frequently ends up getting victimized. As for obtaining relief like divorce, custody of
children and other matrimonial remedies under the civil law she has to knock the doors of
civil courts which were not an easy preposition. Therefore, to seek justice and to ensure
that a women victim of domestic violence get relief the Protection of Women from
Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA) was enacted in 2005.

PWDVA is a civil law. The Act recognizes domestic violence as a human rights
violation. It acknowledges a woman’s right to live in a violence free home. To realize this
right, the Act identifies a woman’s right to residence and her right to obtain protection
orders under the law. The Act does not make any changes in the existing personal law
regime on family matters relating to marriage, divorce and related issues. For the first
time, this Act clearly defines what constitutes ‘domestic violence’ and provides a
comprehensive definition and captures women’s experience of abuse to include physical
violence as well as other forms of violence such as emotional, verbal, sexual and
economic abuse.

Intimate partner violence is multi dimensional and involves complex dynamics of

relationship where perpetrator and victim share a history of affection, hopes, dreams,
expectations and battering. This is different from violence by strangers where a victim
may not share any relationship with the abuser. Because of this dynamic relationship
between the victim and the abuser in domestic violence, a victim may take all steps to
salvage the relationship, and therefore, may not take immediate action against the abuser.
Due to high value placed by society on loyalty, commitment, trust and stability of marital
relationship, a woman generally stay within the abusive relationship, despite serious
abuse. She may try to get rid of the abuse but may also at the same time try to protect the
abuser and her relationship with him.

The growing demands and expectations from spouses have led to a number of
problems like, rise in divorce and separation, delayed initiation into motherhood, mental
tensions, increased harassment of women for dowry and incidences of domestic violence
etc.
Common reasons for family disputes as observed today;

 The wife, as such, may not consider the husband as the sole provider,
protector or philosopher who will direct and control major or even minor
family decisions;
 When provocations and hurting each other by taunts, sarcasms and abuses
become a repetitive pattern of behaviour of spouses;
 Wife battering, dowry, bride burning;
 Violent behaviour of either spouse more often than not the husbands;
 Another factor is education, particularly when the wife is more educated
than the husband and the husband does not have regular or steady work;
 Use of alcohol and drug abuse are also important factors;
 Some women consider sex dirty and find it difficult to enjoy it with their
partners, the husband or the wife or both may be anxiety prone;
 In many parts of India the question of dowry or promised dowry becomes a
bone of contention and a point of wrangling between the spouses. The
situation may be further worsened or aggravated by needless interference
from in-laws;
 There are highly competent wives who may make the husband feel small.
They are indiscriminate, insensitive and do not exercise caution in hurting
fragile male vanity. The husband may retaliate to cover up feelings of
inferiority by showing his physical power and aggression;
 Extra marital relations by either spouse or promiscuity;
 Doubting the integrity/ character of spouse (by either spouse).

In India, in the wake of increased family disputes, divorces, family violence,

dowry harassment and family maladjustments some support systems came into existence
to help the victims and the aggrieved parties. This gave rise to introduction of family
courts and the concept of Family Counselling Centres.

The Family Courts

Family courts are a specialized type of courts entrusted with the disposal of cases
concerning disputes relating to the family. In brief, these courts deal with litigation
concerning marriage and divorce, maintenance, guardianship and the property of spouses.
They are established under the Family Courts Act, 1984.

The object of family courts (as stated by the legislature) is to promote conciliation
and secure speedy settlement of disputes relating to marriage and family affairs. Besides
this, the idea underlying the movement for family courts is that ordinary courts with their
conservative atmosphere, setting and procedure, cannot appropriately deal with family
disputes in the proper spirit. There is also the feeling that all matters concerning a family
should be settled speedily in one court.

A Family Court may consist of one Judge, or may consist of more than one Judge.
The Judges are appointed by the State Government with the concurrence of the High
Court. Where it consists of more than one Judge, the State Government, with the
concurrence of the High Court, may appoint a Principal Judge and an additional Principal
Judge.

The State Government, in consultation with the High Court, determines the
number and categories of counsellors, officers and other employees required to assist a
Family Court. The educational background of these counsellors should be graduate with a
law degree. They are appointed on contractual basis for the initial period of six months
and further, extended based on their success and performance. These family counsellors
discuss the case with both the parties and try to come up with acceptable solution /
compromise accepted to both the parties then again these case files are sent back to the
Additional District Judge for final decision.

The Family Counselling Centres

The concept of family counselling was conceptualize by the Central Social welfare
Board (CSWB) in 1980s when there was a spate of dowry deaths. The Board spearheaded
the campaign by setting up Voluntary Action Bureaus, which subsequently took the
shape of Family Counselling Centres.

The objective of the Family Counselling Centres is to provide preventive and

rehabilitative services to women and families who are victims of atrocities and family
mal-adjustments through crisis intervention and systematic counselling. The centres also
create awareness and mobilize public opinion on social issues affecting status of women.

The Scheme

The scheme of Family Counselling Centres (FCCs) was launched by Government

of India in 1983 and it is being implemented by CSWB through voluntary organizations
across the country. At present approximately 800 Family Counselling Centres are
functioning in different states. The centres also create awareness and mobilize public
opinion on social issues affecting status of women. The FCCs work in close collaboration
with the local administration, police, courts, free legal aid cells, medical and psychiatric
institutions, vocational training centres, short stay homes etc.
 A grant of Rs. one lakh ninety two thousand per annum was given to voluntary
organizations for running the centres on an 80:20 matching basis. The budget includes
honorarium of two counsellors and other recurring expenditures.

Family Counselling Centres (FCCs) have also been set up for special interventions
in different set ups. The same are listed below;

FCCs at Police Headquarters

Family Counselling Centres are being run in some Police Headquarters premises
under the administrative control of the State Social Welfare Boards. These FCCs were
established with the objective of providing speedy crisis intervention to those women
whose cases were registered in Police Stations. Such FCCs attempt to arrive at out of
court settlement of family discord cases. Thirty four such FCCs are functioning in Police
Headquarters in Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Goa, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala,
M.P., Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Orissa, Pondicherry, Punjab,
Sikkim, Tamilnadu, Tripura, U.P. and West Bengal.

FCCs in Mahila Jails

Twenty-three FCCs have been set up in Mahila Jails in Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi,
Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Tamilnadu, Uttar
Pradesh and West Bengal.

Pre-marital Counselling Centres

This new initiative is being implemented in Women Development Centres at

various colleges in Delhi. They lay special emphasis on pre-marital counselling and deal
with other areas of psycho-social crises management for young women.

Centres for Devdasis / Red Light Areas

At present there are two FCCs working for the welfare of Devdasi and sex workers
and their children one each in Mumbai (Maharashtra) and Belgaun (Karnataka). The
Centres are set up with the objective of providing preventive services through awareness
campaigns on STD, AIDs and other health and legal matters and also rehabilitative
measures for children of prostitutes.
Meaning and Definitions of Counselling

The term counselling denotes a wide variety of procedures for helping individuals
to achieve adjustment, such as giving help in finding solution to problems and therapeutic
discussion. It aims at making individual self-sufficient, self-directed and to adjust
themselves efficiently to the demands of a better and meaningful life.

According to Rogers, an effective counselling consists of a definitely structure

permissive relationship which allows the client to gain an understanding of himself to a
degree which enables him to take positive steps in the light of his new orientation.

The term counselling is used in a number of ways. It is viewed as a special kind of

helping relationship, or as a set of activities and methods or as defining an area in which
services are provided.

The need for the study on Family Counselling Centres

As mentioned elsewhere the FCCs were set up for reuniting the families and
helping the clients to resolve their disputes through a process of dialogue. It was over a
quarter century ago the FCCs were established and are still being run all across the
country today, however, not many researches had been conducted to know as to how
these institutions are contributing in family reintegration and meeting the expectations of
aggrieved parties and settling down their disputes as envisaged in the Scheme. Precisely
with this object in mind the present study was under taken on a limited scale covering a
total of eleven FCCs located in Northern States.
Chapter II

Research Design
The Study

The study was conducted on Family Counselling Centres by drawing samples

from the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and
Uttaranchal. The scheme under reference is being implemented by the Central Social
Welfare Board (CSWB) through Voluntary Organizations across the country.

The Family Counselling Centres (FCCs) scheme has been in operation for more
than 25 years, it aims at saving the families from breaking up on account of marital
discord, dowry problem, alcoholism, drug abuse etc. and to provide preventive, curative
and rehabilitative services to victims of domestic violence and other problems relating to
the individual and family. Besides, it also aims at generating awareness in the community
about prevailing laws relating to women and giving legal aid to people. It is a unique
programme and has an immense potential to help women who are victims of domestic
violence and facing marital discord. However, there is only a little information available
about its service delivery, linkages of FCCs with different agencies and difficulties faced
by voluntary organizations in effective implementation of the scheme. In order to probe
into the above, a detailed study on Family Counselling Centres was done with the
following objectives;

i. To study the extent to which the scheme has achieved its objectives;
ii. to study the effectiveness of services provided and identify type of cases
reported to FCCs;
iii. to know the rate of success with respect to rehabilitation of aggrieved
women;

iv. to understand the problems and difficulties faced by Voluntary

Organizations in effective implementation of the programme; and
v. to suggest ways and means for strengthening FCCs.

Methodology

From a total of 86 FCCs operational in the 6 states of Bihar, Himachal Pradesh,

Haryana, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) and Uttarakhand 11 FCCs were taken for the
study which accounts for 10 per cent of the operational FCCs in the Northern Region of
the country. Since maximum number of FCCs were operational in the State of U.P. and
Bihar, it was decided to take three FCCs each from U.P. and Bihar and one each from rest
of the States. An additional FCC was studied from U.P. which was run in the Police
Headquarters by an NGO. Care was also taken to have sample of FCCs run in the Jail
premises for the women prisoners. The basic idea for this diversified sample was to have
a better understanding about FCCs functional in variety of set-ups.

As per the Annual Report of Ministry of Women and Child Development, 884
Family Counselling Centres were sanctioned by CSWB in the country. The centres
allocated to Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal
are presented in the table given below:

Table 2.1: Showing Sample Units

S. No. State / UTs No. of Units No. of Units taken in the study
operational
1. Bihar 30 3 (incl. 1 jail.)
2. Jharkhand 12 1
3. Haryana 12 1
4. Himachal Pradesh 03 1
5. Uttar Pradesh 27 4 (incl. 1 jail, 1 Police
Hqrs.)
6. Uttarakhand 02 1
Total 86 11

Selection of Respondents

Information was collected from a targeted respondent group of individuals in each

of the selected FCCs for the purpose of this study.

Table 2.2: Target Respondents

Sl. No. Target Respondents Nos.
1. Head of the Organization 11
2. Counsellors (two from each FCC ) 22
3. Aggrieved Person/Clients (four from each FCC ) 36
4. Women Prisoners (four from each prison) 8

Research Tools

The information for the study was collected by interviewing the Organizational
Heads, Counsellors, and the Clients from every FCC. Two FCCs located within the
women Jail premises at Nari Bandi Niketan, Lucknow, (U.P.) and Ara, Jail (Bihar) were
also covered in the sample. A separate interview schedule was constructed to collect the
data from these prison inmates.
1. Schedule for Head of the Organizations: A total of 11 Head of the
Organizations were interviewed. The information collected was related to services
delivered at FCCs, problems faced in running FCCs and some constructive suggestions to
strengthen the overall functioning of the FCCs.

2. Schedule for the Counsellors: A total of 22 counsellors of the FCCs were

interviewed. A detailed schedule was developed to gather information from the
counsellors for each sample unit on the functioning of the FCC, including day-to-day
activities, the counselling process, process of documentation, details of cases coming to
the FCC, problems generally encountered by the counsellors in the field.

3. Schedule for the Clients: Four clients from each FCC who had availed the
services were randomly selected for a detailed case study thus a total of thirty six clients
were interviewed. The information collected was related to utilization of services,
perceptions and their views about overall functioning of the FCCs.

4. Schedule for Jail inmates (Women prisoners): Eight women prisoners were
interviewed through a schedule specially developed for this group. These women
prisoners were availing the services of the FCC located within the Jail premises.

5. Observation Schedule: Apart from individual interviews, a schedule was

prepared for making overall observation on the FCCs with focus on the physical
infrastructure, aids, equipments, records and kind of activities conducted.

Information from other Sources: Studies and reports published and unpublished on the
theme of the present study constituted the secondary source of information for the study.

Pre Testing

Tools prepared for the study were initially pre tested in the field. Modifications
and changes required were incorporated in the schedule before finalization.

Operational details

The study was conducted covering six states viz. Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana,
Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal. The selected voluntary
organizations who were running FCCs from each state were informed through letters
before hand about the study, its objectives and the data collection programme, in order to
obtain their maximum cooperation. This was followed up by the researchers visiting the
FCCs to collect the data.

An experienced team was deployed for data collection. For any research study, the
most important and critical period is data collection phase, because operational details
cannot be worked out so meticulously unless one visits the field. A wide range of
problems generally crop in, such as, transportation, stay arrangement for researchers,
climatic conditions, and of course, the availability of respondents. The research team
deployed also had to face all such types of problems in collection of data from the 11
FCCs spread in 6 states in different geographical and climatic conditions.

Quality Assurance

A number of steps were taken to ensure reliable and good quality data. A Research
Advisory Committee was formed comprising eminent professional researchers in the
field of Social Sciences. They were consulted at different stages of the study.

Research Advisory Committee

The Research Advisory Committee comprised of Prof. Surender Singh, Vice

Chancellor (Retd.), Kashi Vidyapeeth, Late Prof. S. P. Srivastava, Professor (Retd.),
Deptt. of Social Work, Lucknow University and Dr. S. P. Jain, Director, NIRD (Retd.)
and Former Regional Director, NIPCCD, Regional Centre, Lucknow.

After collection of data, the same was coded. The responses on open-ended
questions were classified for coding. Univariate and bivariate tables were prepared for
description of data in the report.

Presentation of Report

The report of the study has been presented in different chapters. Chapter I and II
includes introduction and methodology, Chapter III includes a profile of voluntary
organizations running FCCs, physical aspects of the FCCs including, physical
infrastructure, physical amenities, equipments etc. Chapter IV describes the functionaries
of the FCCs (counsellors), their qualifications, role and responsibilities and job
satisfaction. Chapter V gives an overview of the beneficiaries (Clients) and Chapter VI
describes the success stories in the form of individual case studies of the clients whose
cases were successfully solved by the FCCs. Chapter VII includes conclusions and
recommendations of the study.
Chapter III

The Profile of the Organizations and the FCC

As mentioned in the previous chapters the Scheme is being implemented by
Central Social Welfare Board through voluntary organizations all across the country and
has very wide outreach. The State Social Welfare Boards monitor the FCCs being run by
the voluntary organizations and provide all possible technical support for smooth
functioning of these units.

A total of eleven FCCs were surveyed in the Northern States to collect data. There
were two FCCs in the sample which were exclusively run for inmates of women jails, one
FCC which was run at the CB-CID premises in Lucknow in collaboration with Mahila
Sahayata Prakoshtha and the rest of the eight were general FCCs (See Table No. 3.1).

Table 3.1: Showing the category of FCCs

Sl. No. Category of the FCC Number Percentage

1. General FCCs 8 73
2. FCCs in Jail Premises 2 18
3. FCC in Police Headquarters 1 9
Total 11 100

As regards the condition of buildings where the FCCs were housed, it was found
that maximum buildings were ‘fairly good’ and some could be rated as ‘very good’.

As regards the availability of the furniture/furnishings in the FCCs, majority of the

FCCs were having chairs, tables, almirahs, fans, type writer, computers, telephone, fax, e-
mail, books on counselling and books related to law. Only a few FCCs were not equipped
with modern facilities of a computer, e-mail, fax and library services.

Almost fifty per cent of the FCCs had earmarked two rooms for work related to
FCC as one room was used for administrative purpose of the FCC with tables and chairs.
The second room was for counselling of the client along with tables and comfortable
chairs for seating because some clients didn’t want to disclose their marital, domestic
problem/ harassment in front of others. Realizing this fact, some NGOs earmarked a
separate room for counselling which gave privacy for the clients to discuss matters that
are very personal in nature.

As regards the educational status of the organizational heads running FCCs, it was
found that most of the heads were educated up to graduation 54 per cent, post graduation
36 per cent. Among them a few heads were having professional Masters degree in Social
Work, Business Administration, Diploma in Tourism and Hotel Management etc.

Most of the organizations operational concerns and areas were wide ranging. The
main combination of areas which they focused were Women Empowerment, Child
Development, Health and Education and Rural Development etc.

Details of organizations and the FCCs

As regard the experience of the organizations in the field, it was found that 54 per
cent of these were working for over 20 years, 45 per cent between 10 – 20 years. These
organizations were getting financial support from various government and non-
government agencies like; Central Social Welfare Board, State Social Welfare Board,
CAPART, SIFPSA and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare etc. Apart from these,
some organizations were getting funds from International organizations like Mennonite,
Central Committee (USA), Caritas India, and UNICEF.

As regards the staff appointed for FCC, it was informed by the organizational
heads that every FCC got two sanctioned posts of counsellors, one office assistant (part
time) and one peon (part time) (See Table No. 3.2).

Table 3.2: Details staff appointed for FCC

Sl. No. Designation No. of Staff

1. Counsellors 2
2. Accountant 1
3. Peon 1

As regards the flow of funds from board to FCC it was found that the Central
Social Welfare Board releases grant to all the State Social Welfare Boards on yearly
basis. These state boards in turn transfer the grant to the organizations. A total grant
sanctioned for one year to each FCC was Rs.2,28,000 (A class cities) and Rs.1,92,000
(Other cities). The breakup for one year grant showed that Rs. 1,32,000/- were being
earmarked for the salary of two counsellors and Rs. 60,000/- as contingency, which
included the salaries of one Accountant and one Peon (which were appointed as part time
workers) and other administrative expenses. Apart from the sanctioned grant of
Rs.1,92,000/- for one year, the organizations required to contribute 20 per cent of the
sanctioned grant, from its own resources (See Table No. 3.3).
 Table 3.3: Break up of Expenditure

Counsellor 2 x Rs. 7000 pm (A city) 14,000 x 12 = 1,68,000

Counsellor 2 x Rs. 5500 pm (Other cities) 11,000 x 12 = 1,32,000
Contingency (salaries of Peon & Office Assistant 60,000
- Part time and other expenses)
NGO contribution 20% of the total grant
As it is evident from the table given below that a majority 55 per cent of the
organizations were running FCCs between 6 – 15 years followed by 27 per cent of these
for more than 15 years. It showed that all the sample FCCs had very rich experience of
handling cases of marital disputes (See Table no. 3.4).

Table 3.4: Experience of Organizations in running FCCs

Sl. No. Time in years F %

1. Less than 5 2 18
2. 6 – 15 6 55
3. 16 & above 3 27
Total 11 100

The Counsellors at the FCCs

Almost all the FCCs had two counsellors. Newsprint advertising and direct
selection process were adopted to select these qualified counsellors by the organizations.
The selection committee comprised of the Secretary of the organization, State Social
Welfare Board functionaries, expert from psychology department of universities, and
members of the executive committee. Almost all the counsellors of the FCCs were
qualified as per the norms except one, who was working as stop gap arrangement,
because the regular counsellor was on a long leave and in her place a staff member of the
organization who was closely associated with the counselling centre was given the
responsibility of taking case history etc. and help the other counsellor (See Table no. 3.5).

Table 3.5: Qualifications of Counsellors as per the norms

Sl. No. Responses F %
1 Yes 21 90
2 No 1 10
Total 22 100

It was revealed that the educational background of most of counsellors was Social
Work, Sociology and Psychology. Whereas, the Central Social Welfare Board had laid
down specific guideline for essential educational qualification for two counsellors i.e.
Masters in Psychology and Social Work. However, in one of the FCCs located at Kullu, it
was told that there was no institution having Psychology department as a subject so it was
difficult for the organization to get any counsellor with a Psychology background. More
or less it was found that the organizations took utmost care to have counsellors who were
qualified and could handle complex cases of marital disputes.

About three fourth of the sample heads of organizations said that their counsellors
were not having any experience regarding counselling at the time of joining FCC while
the rest had some experience. Further, 82 per cent of them added that the counsellors
should also have knowledge of laws such as Dowry Act, Domestic Violence Act, Child
Marriage Act, IPC, Cr PC, Marriage laws related to various religions, etc. but the rest did
not subscribe to this view as they thought that it was not necessary that a counsellor must
have knowledge of laws because they have lawyers in the committees to handle legal
issues of the clients reported at FCC.

When the organizational heads were asked whether counsellors should be

provided any training, almost all the heads of organizations were of the view that the
counsellors should be given orientation training on topics like legal issues / provisions,
counselling skills, networking, human rights, women empowerment etc. so that they can
enhance and update their knowledge to handle cases coming to FCCs effectively.

Release of Grants

The organizational heads were asked whether they received grant regularly for the
smooth organization of services at the FCC. To this majority of the heads responded
saying that due to irregular grants they were finding it difficult to retain their experienced
counsellors as they were not able to pay them their honorarium regularly.

Further, the heads were asked in the absence of grant how they managed the
expenses incurred on the programme. In response they said, since it was a liability of the
organization it had to be managed by taking loan from NGO’s general accounts and at
times the funds were also diverted from other projects to meet the liability of FCC
project.

Further, the heads were asked whether they pay honorarium to their staff regularly.
To this query, 91 per cent of the organizational heads said that they were unable to give
salaries to their FCC staff regularly as grant was irregular and reached very late to them.
About 55 per cent of the heads of the organizations said that they could pay honorarium
to their staff once in 6 months while 36 per cent organizations paid once in 3 months, see
Table 3.6 for further details.
 Table 3.6: Frequency of Honorarium paid to Counsellors

Sl. No. Time Period F %

1. Once a month 1 9
2. Once in 3 months 4 36
3. Once in 6 months& above 6 55
Total 11 100

More than 50 per cent of the organizational heads believed that the heavy turnover
of the qualified and experienced staff was due to low amount of honorarium and irregular
payment of the same due to late release of grant by the state boards.

Details about functioning of FCC

The organizational heads were asked as to how do they get cases at their FCC and
what strategy did they adopt to advocate for their FCC. To this query, almost all the
organizational heads responded saying that they advocated about the FCC through
Mohalla Meetings, advertisements in news papers and local cable network, awareness
camps etc. Further, they said the new cases were referred from a variety of sources which
include, Lok Adalats, Women Helpline, Women Cell, Women Commission, referrals
from Sub-Committee members, Police Department and even some were through former
clients.

The organizational heads were asked as to how often they visit FCC. The
responses to this query revealed that around 46 per cent percent of the organizational
heads visit FCC ‘daily’ 36 per cent ‘weekly’ and 18 per cent ‘fortnightly’ (See Table no.
3.7).
Table 3.7: Visit of Head of Organization to FCC

Sl. No. Visits F %

1. Daily 5 46
2. Weekly 4 36
3. Fortnightly 2 18
Total 11 100

As regards the meetings with the FCC staff, most of the organizational heads said
that they organized meetings with their sub committee to review the programme, along
with FCC staff.
 It was revealed that every FCC had a sub-committee which comprised Police
Personnel, Social Activists, Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Lawyers, Doctors and Secretary of
the organization and they claimed that the sub-committee meetings took place quarterly
and no honorarium was paid to its members as they worked voluntarily. The
organizations referred the cases to the members of the sub-committee for consultations or
they call the lawyers, Police personnel, doctors for seeking legal, medical, and Police
help for the clients. It was found that many a times the clients were very poor and they
invariably required free legal services.

The organizational heads were asked whether they maintain individual case files
for the clients. In response, almost all the heads said that they maintained an individual
case file which comprised of application given by the client, a filled in proforma given by
the FCC to client, relevant papers and documents supplied by the client and report of the
counsellor dealing with the case etc.

It was revealed that most of the clients had to spend money mainly in court for
lawyer, stamp papers etc. (if the case was registered in court), medical checkups (in case
of wife battering) and to meet expenses on speed post / registry / courier etc.
As regards the percentage of solved cases at the FCC, the organizational heads
were of the view that almost 80 per cent cases were solved by them every year. On an
average every FCC got around 25 – 30 cases per year and it was observed that reporting
of cases at FCC largely depended on the kind of ground work carried out by the
organization in terms of advocacy. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the
organizations were conducting advocacy programmes for FCC through Mohalla meetings
(monthly), awareness camps etc.

As regards the monitoring of the FCC was concerned it was revealed that the State
Social Welfare Board officials make two visits per year to every FCC. During their visits
these officials checked the records and case files of the clients maintained at FCC and
gave their inputs and suggestions wherever required.

As regard the networking of their organizations with other agencies, some of the
heads told that their organization was affiliated to networks like NGO Munch, Jan
Adhikar and Mahila Samakhya besides this they had liaison with organizations like,
Action Aid and UNICEF which also helped them to perform their task successfully.
Further it was found that some VOs were having networking with Police, Women and
Child Helplines, District Administration, Women Commission and Women cell etc. This
network at various levels helped these organizations to function effectively and to sought
timely help for their clients. At times the organizational heads and counsellors were in
danger and faced threats from second party for having taken up the cases of their rivals
and these networks helped them to thwart any such threat.
 The suggestions and recommendations offered by the organizational heads have
been incorporated in the conclusions and recommendations chapter of the report.
Chapter IV

The Counsellors
It is commonly believed that all a person needs to become a counsellor is to have
good intentions coupled with the ability to communicate with clients. In a way,
counselling is a practical skill and it can be of help only if the counsellor enjoys the
confidence of the counselee. To be a competent counsellor, there is needed to be caring,
empathetic with a deep desire to support and help people. Small technicalities of
counselling are not that important as the desire to help and to win the confidence of the
one who is in trouble and seeks help.

Counsellors deal with personal and emotional problems of people i.e. with people
who are in difficulty and are beset with problems which they themselves cannot resolve.
A counsellor is expected to treat such people as human beings in their own right and not
as just cases to be solved and pigeonholed. Their feelings should be understood and
accepted. Unless this is done no reasonable and lasting solution of their problems can be
reached.

It is better not to look at a problem just as a problem, but as a person with a

problem. This will set the tone for counselling. However, sometimes a spontaneous
action may become a kind of a symbol of recognition of the client's need for help and our
willingness to give such help that may be required to solve the problem. Sometimes the
counsellor has to work with very different kind of clients e.g. when he has to deal not
with the troubled but with one who is the cause of the suffering, whether deliberately or
otherwise. Such people are generally non-cooperative, and so a counsellor is required to
spend a lot of time in rapport building and interacting with them to win their acceptance
and cooperation.

Counsellor needs many attributes i.e. he/she should be skilled in interpersonal

relations, should have the ability to give career information, should have a sense of
humor and an attitude of acceptance towards all clients. They should have the ability of
winning the confidence even of highly emotional clients through crisis intervention and
he should work towards raising their morale and bringing in them a sense of self-
dependence. It is very important for a counsellor to try to understand what the client's
situation means to him. It is also important for a counsellor to keep in mind that a friendly
approach is very necessary, particularly for emotional clients.

In short, counselling requires a capacity for sustained and patient listening to the
person who is in difficulty, to see what his situation means to him, what he feels and what
he feels about the possible ways out of his difficulties. Counselling is the most important
function in the field of guidance. In counselling it is all important that the counselee has
confidence in the counsellor. He must accept him as a person interested in his well being.
In a broader sense the counselling denotes a combination of the following;

 A psychosocial process that addresses client’s thoughts, feelings and

behaviour in the context of her environment that includes her family, and
the community.
 A planned intervention between the client and the counsellor to assist the
client to change, improve, and resolve behaviours that are difficult,
distressing or mal-adaptive.
 A process of identifying the client’s coping strategies and strengthening
them further, as well as helping the client develop more effective coping
methods.
 A collaborative effort between the client and the counsellor, keeping the
client’s interest and needs in mind.
 A process that takes place with full active participation of the client and
involves a mutual responsibility between the client and the counsellor.
 Aimed at developing individual’s unique self and potentials.
 A form of education through communication and structuring.
 Voluntary in nature, can’t be forced on the client.
 A process that involves a use of specific technologies based on certain
theoretical constructs, which should be carried out by trained personnel in
an appropriate place and time.

Details about the Counsellors

As one of the most important aspect of this study was to collect feedback from the
counsellors who were the backbone of the FCCs. Each FCC is supposed to have two
counsellors as per the guidelines of Central Social Welfare Board. However, in the
survey out of 11 FCCs it was found that in two of the FCCs only one counsellor was in
place. Therefore, the sample of counsellors had 20 subjects only.

As regards the distribution of age of the counsellors it was found that majority (45
per cent) of the counsellors fell within the age group of 25 – 30 years while 25 per cent
counsellors were between the age group of 31 – 35 years and the rest were above 36
years.

Since it is assumed that these FCCs cater to the needs of women clients therefore
female counsellors were preferred and as a result the ratio of male and female counsellor
in the surveyed FCCs was 20:80.
Education

As regards the educational status of the counsellors working in FCCs, it was

revealed that majority (90 per cent) of the counsellors had done post graduation, out of
which 40 per cent had possessed post graduation degree in psychology, 35 per cent in
social work and 15 per cent in sociology. The educational status of two counsellors who
were working in place of regular counsellors as a stop gap arrangement was not in
accordance with the guidelines.

It was found that majority of the counsellors working in these FCCs were trained
in computer operation and some of them were having additional qualifications like B.Ed.,
M.Ed., LLB, Diploma in Clinical Psychology and Diploma in Guidance and Counselling.

Experience & Training

The counsellors were asked, for how many years that they had been working as
counsellors in the FCC. The responses in this regard showed that a large number of
counsellors (45 per cent) were found to be working for more than 3 years, while 30 per
cent were for 2 - 3 years and the rest for less than two years (See Table No. 4.1).

Table 4.1: Work Experience of Counsellors

Sl. No. No. of working years F %

1. 3 years & above 9 45
2. 2 – 3 years 6 30
3. Less than 2 years 5 25
Total 20 100

When the counsellors were asked, whether they had any work experience as
counsellors before joining in FCC, the responses revealed that more than half i.e. around
60 per cent had no work experience at all, whereas, forty percent reported to have some
work experience before joining in FCC.

As regards the training, it may be mentioned here that the Central Social Welfare
Board arranged orientation training for the counsellors working for the FCC programme.
However, the data on training status revealed that only 60 per cent of the counsellors had
exposure to this kind of training, perhaps this could be due to the fact that many of the
counsellors after undergoing the orientation programmes must have left the FCC for
better job prospects in due course of time. It was also expressed by the organizational
heads that it was becoming very difficult for them to retain trained staff due to paltry and
irregular payment of honorarium to these professionals. (See Table No. 4.2).
 Table 4.2: Training Status of the Counsellors

Sl. No. Training status F %

1. Trained 12 60
2. Untrained 8 40
Total 20 100

The counsellors were asked if they had any knowledge of laws relating to
marriage and divorce in different religious communities. The data in this respect revealed
that more than half 55 per cent of the counsellors had some knowledge regarding laws.
But when they were asked to give details of the same, it was found that most of them
were unaware of basic details of laws governing marriage and divorce.
Counsellors’ understanding of counselling and its principles
To examine the knowledge of counsellors regarding counselling, some multiple
options were given to them and they were asked to indicate the preferences among the
given options as to what exactly counselling means. In this regard majority of the
counsellors (65 per cent) mentioned that counselling is a collaborative effort. Whereas,
fifty five per cent of the counsellors said that counselling is developing individual’s
unique self and potential. While forty five per cent of the counsellors said that
counselling is a psychological process and thirty per cent of them believed that
counselling means advising. Whereas twenty five per cent counsellors thought that
‘counselling’ is problem solving and twenty per cent of them held the view that
counselling is judging, followed by those who believed that counselling is helping the
client to solve his/her problems (20 per cent). It is clear from the above data that there
was a confusion atleast among 30 per cent of the counsellors about the real meaning and
concept of counselling (See Table No. 4.3).

Table 4.3: Concept of Counselling

(Multiple response)
(N = 20)
S. No. Concept of Counselling F %
1. A collaborative effort 13 65
2. Developing individual’s unique self and potentials 11 55
3. A psychological process 9 45
4. Advising 6 30
5. Problem Solving 5 25
6. Judging 4 20
7. Helping them to solve their problems 4 20
8. Lecturing 3 15
9. Deciding 2 10
10. Instructing 1 5
 There are a number of principles of behaviour that a counsellor should be
acquainted with. These are the principle of resistance, selective attention, identification
with self-concept, non-judgemental, psychological self-preservation, awareness and
sensitivity. The counsellor should also try to develop several positive attitudes to function
professionally. These include, principles of willingness to accept the counselee, to
understand her/ him, to be honest with her, to develop empathy, to listen to her
intelligently and to give her encouragement and approval. At the same time the
counsellor should try to avoid the negative attitudes of cutting off communication at the
slightest sign of disagreement with the counselee.

As far as the understanding of basic principles of counselling by the counsellors

was concerned, the data revealed that only 20 per cent counsellors found to have fairly
good understanding about principles of counselling. Whereas, 55 per cent of the
respondents had little understanding and about 25 per cent of them had no knowledge or
understanding about it (See Table no. 4.4).

Table 4.4: Understanding of Principles of Counselling

Sl. No. Understanding of Principles F %

1. Have fairly good understanding 4 20
2. Little understanding 11 55
3. No understanding 5 25
Total 20 100

To assess the basic counselling skills of the counsellors a few situations were
given to them to get their reactions. The situations were as follows:
 Suppose, a client comes to your FCC and he/she is very upset and unable to
express his/her problem, in that situation how do you handle this client?
 How do you facilitate to make the client disclose her problems?
 What do you do when a client comes to you and asks for some shelter as she
doesn’t want to go back home?
In response to situation one, majority of the counsellors said that in this situation
they would first provide him/her a glass of water, make her comfortable and give her time
to cool down. In response to situation two, majority of the counsellors said that first they
would give him/her moral support, and encourage, build trust and take her into
confidence. In response to situation three, majority of the counsellors said that they refer
her to short stay home and those who were having short stay home with their
organization, they would offer the client shelter at least till further arrangement was
made. The responses to the above, gave an impression that majority of the counsellors
took right steps or approaches towards the situation.
Details about the cases
When the counsellors were asked as to how do they get clients/cases at their FCC?
They mentioned a number ways through which they got cases at their FCC, it included,
net working with other NGOs, Self Help Groups in villages, Mohalla Gosthi, awareness
camps/workshops etc. The counsellors mentioned that they also got cases through their
former clients and at times the sub-committee members also referred the cases.
The counsellors were asked as to which SES group (socio economic status) the
cases were reported at FCC from. It was revealed that majority of the cases were reported
from lower socio-economic group whereas, a very small percentage was reported from
middle and higher socio-economic status group. Perhaps, the clients from the later groups
hesitated to register their case due to the fear of getting exposed or stigma. It was also
found that in some FCCs, persons from higher income group came for consultation for
their problems without getting registered.
As regards the male/female complainants at the FCC, it was found that the turnout
of females in the FCCs was high in comparison to the male clients. The ratio of
male/female complainants was found to be in the ratio of 20:80.
To a query about the type of cases reported at FCC, the counsellors revealed that
majority of the cases registered at FCC with multiple complaints related to domestic
violence, dowry harassment, followed by cases like adjustment problems, extra marital
affairs by either husband or wife and so on. Besides this few cases of kidnapping, murder,
drug trafficking, robbery and colluding with the rapist was also reported at the FCCs
located at Jail premises (See Table No. 4.5).
Table 4.5: Type of cases reported at FCC
(Multiple response)
(N = 20)
Sl. No. Type of Cases F %
1. Domestic violence 20 100
2. Dowry 12 60
3. Adjustment problems 11 55
4. Extra marital affairs 9 45
5. Drugs and alcoholism 7 35
6. Colluded with the rapist (jail FCC) 4 20
7. Kidnapping( jail FCC) 4 20
8. Murder cases(jail FCC) 4 20
9. Sexual abuse 3 15
10. Robbery (jail FCC) 2 10
11. Drug Trafficking (jail FCC) 2 10
12. Elopement 2 10
13. Homo sexuality 1 5
14. Dual Marriage 1 5
Services provided
As regards the services provided to the clients by the FCCs, it was revealed that
these institutions provided various kinds of services to their clients. Almost all the FCCs
found to have provided counselling services, legal aid, medical aid, referrals to their
clients, and 75 per cent counsellors mentioned that they also had helped women in taking
Police support. This is apart, the FCCs were also engaged in creating awareness among
women regarding their rights and laws related to their protection (75 per cent),
organization of workshops on social issues (65 per cent), about 25 per cent of the FCCs
mentioned that they were providing shelter to their clients in their shelter homes (See
Table no. 4.6).
Table 4.6: Services Provided by the FCC
(Multiple response)
(N = 20)
Sl. No. Services F %
1. Counselling 20 100
2. Legal Aid 20 100
3. Referrals 20 100
4. Helping women in taking police support 15 75
5. Create awareness among women regarding laws and their rights 15 75
6. Medical Aid 13 65
7. Organizing workshops on social issues 13 65
8. Providing shelter 5 25

It may be mentioned that every case registered at FCC had received a number of
counselling sessions and these were spread over some weeks and months and in few
instances, it was reported by the counsellors that they had to follow up cases for years.

Process of Counselling

Counselling can best be described as a ‘process’ this implies an identifiable

sequence of events taking place over a period of time. The nature and dynamics involved
in counselling differ with each individual counselee. However, the stages usually
included; initial appointment, pre-counselling session involving an exploration of the
clients concerns, development of a facilitative relationship, goal specification,
identification and consideration of factors related to the achievement of solution,
evaluation of results, termination of relationship and follow-up. Outcome goals are the
intended result of the counselling process. The process goals are those future events
which the counsellor considers helpful or instrumental in bringing about outcome goals.
In the survey, the FCC counsellors were asked as to what process was adopted by
them to help the client after his/her arrived at FCC. Nearly all the counsellors mentioned
approximately the same process like, first of all they welcome the client, make her feel
comfortable by offering a glass of water and initiate a general talk. Then, they try to
understand the problem and ask her/him to write down an application giving details of the
problem. After the application was received, the registration form is filled and the case is
registered in the FCC. After that the counsellor calls the second party through
letter/phone to get his/her version on the complaint of the first party. After collecting all
the facts the counsellor first initiates the individual counselling of both the parties then
arranges joint counselling of both the parties. After several counselling sessions the
counsellor tries to reach on some commonly acceptable decision/compromise formulae.
When asked what is the state of mind of the clients when they enter FCC for the
first time. To this query, the counsellors mentioned that a varied kind of behaviors were
exhibited by the clients in the first interaction at the FCC viz. 75 per cent clients were
found to be crying and nervous and, 40 per cent were to be very aggressive and agitated,
yet another 40 per cent never wanted to go back to their homes etc. see table no. 7 for
details.
Table 4.7: The state of mind of the clients in the first visit to FCC
(Multiple response)
(N = 20)

Sl. No. Response F %

1. Very Nervous & Crying 15 75
2. Aggressive 8 40
3. Don’t want to go back home 8 40
4. Withdrawn 6 30
5 Scared& Doubtful 3 15

The counsellors were asked, whether any prescribed proforma was used for taking
case history of the client. The responses in this regard showed that out of 11 FCCs
surveyed, majority of them i.e. about 55 per cent had prescribed proforma for taking case
history of the clients, rest had no such printed proforma to take details of the client.
Besides this, it was found that in 80 per cent of the FCCs surveyed, it was mandatory on
the part of the client to state his/ her problem in writing. This practice was adopted by the
FCCs in order to use it as an evidence to show it to the second party and to take any
official action when required. As regards the case file of individual clients, it was found
that almost all the FCCs were maintaining case files for their clients.
Rapport Building
The counsellors were asked to give details regarding the number of sittings they
usually have to build rapport with the client. The data in this regard revealed that about
40 per cent counsellors established rapport with the clients within two sittings, whereas
25 per cent mentioned that it took at least 3 – 4 sittings. It was interesting to note that
around 20 per cent counsellors mentioned that it took 5 or more sittings to develop a
rapport with the client. It is important to build rapport to facilitate discloser by the client
and to initiate problem solving process. The reason mentioned by the counsellors for this
delayed rapport building was basically the hesitation on the part of the client to share
personal details to a new person when they come to the FCC. But after few meetings they
feel comfortable and at ease to share. During this period the counsellors maintained
records of every sitting and documented all details (date wise) of discussion held between
them (See Table No. 4.8).
Table 4.8: No. of sittings to make Rapport with the Client

Sl. No. No. of sittings F %

1. 2 sittings 8 40
2. 3-4 sittings 6 30
3. 5 or more sittings 5 25
4. Don’t have any idea 1 5
Total 20 100

Confidentiality
It was revealed that in 75 per cent cases the records containing personal details of
the clients were kept with the counsellors themselves and not shared with anybody unless
it was required for official purposes and in rest of the 25 per cent cases it was either kept
with the secretary or director of the organization who was responsible for overall
functioning of the organization. This indicates that due care was taken by the FCCs to
maintain confidentiality with respect to disclosers made by the clients during the problem
solving process.
In continuation to the above the counsellors with whom the records were kept,
were asked to specify, if they were to share the information regarding a particular client,
with whom would they required to share it. In response, the counsellors mentioned that
they shared the records with the organizational heads (30 per cent), Secretary (25 per
cent), the sub-committee members (20 per cent), lawyers (15 per cent) and sometimes it
was produced in the court. Further, the counsellors were asked whether anybody was
allowed to check these records, in response they said that the welfare officers from State
Social Welfare Boards did see these records when they visit the FCC for monitoring.
The counsellors were further asked whether the behaviour of the clients at any
time created problems for them. To this, a large number of counsellors said ‘yes’, in fact
at times the behaviour of the clients become aggressive, rigid and they never accept their
mistakes and agree with the conditions/options given to them.
Summoning the Second Party
The counsellors were asked whether they called the second party and involved
them in the problem solving process. The responses in this regard revealed that almost all
the counsellors did call the second party against whom the complaint was lodged to know
their version about the case registered at FCC. The second parties were called after
registration of the case at FCC and after discussing the case with first party i.e. the client
and her/his relatives in several sittings. The second parties were called through different
ways which depended on the client and the case. In majority of the cases, the second
party was called either through phone or through a letter/notice by ordinary post. In
certain cases the information to the second party was also sent through registered post or
through personal visits. In the FCC located at CBCID, Police headquarters, Lucknow, the
information to the second party was sent through Police special messenger and
sometimes if the case fell in a distant place, then related thana was also approached to
call the second party (See Table No. 4.9).
Table 4.9: Means of calling the second party
(Multiple response) (N = 20)
Sl. No. Various Means of calling F %
1. Through telephone 15 75
2. Notice through ordinary/registered post 13 65
3. By personal visit 2 10
4. By the Police special messenger 2 10
5. Not Applicable (counsellors working in jails) 4 20
When the counsellors were asked in case the second party ignored their call then
how have they managed the case. In response, the counsellors mentioned that in some
instances resistance was shown by the second party by way of threats to the secretary of
the organization or the counsellors with dire consequences for taking up the case of their
rival. But these elements were suitably dealt with and the organization running the FCC
more often than not managed to get them for talks across the table. Sometimes the second
party expresses its inability to present themselves at the FCC then in those cases the
counsellors made personal home visits to meet the second party. In majority of the cases
the counsellors acted firmly and made them clear that if they failed to cooperate in
working out solution to the problem, a legal action would be initiated against them. It was
observed that the organizations or the organizational heads running the FCC needed to
have a neat and clean image in the community to handle family related disputes and their
public relation and networking with Police and district administration. This would
facilitate immensely in helping the clients seeking help at the FCCs.

While discussing with the counsellors it was learnt that sometimes the second
party considered FCC letter as a legal notice and sent reply through their lawyers or at
times they appeared at the FCC along with their lawyers to defend their case.

The counsellors were asked whether there was any procedure adopted by FCCs to
record the statement of the second party. To this query the counsellors said there was a
system in place to record the statement of the second party to be used it as an evidence.
 Further, the counsellors were asked whether they encountered any resistance from
the second party as well as from Police, political persons while dealing with the cases. In
this regard majority said that generally in the initial stages they experienced some
resistance from second party but gradually, it disappeared. Whereas, in some cases the
resistance from the second party was very high, they often tried to exert political
pressure, personal threats and at times try to prove that the first party was wrong. They
were further asked, if the second party ignored their suggestions what steps the FCC took
in such cases? In response, most of the counsellors said that they had gone for extensive
counselling of the second party over and over again that generally helped in reaching out
to a compromise between the parties. If all these efforts failed then the legal course was
chosen, they said.

When the counsellors were asked as to how much time did it take normally to
solve a case coming to their FCC, to this question almost all the counsellors mentioned
that one can not define a time limit to any case because it could vary from case to case
and client to client. Although they further responded that in majority of the cases (40 per
cent) it took 4 to 6 months, yet in few cases, it took about a year or so (See Table No.
4.10).

Table 4.10: Time taken by a Counsellor in solving a Case

(Multiple response)
(N = 20)

Sl. No. Time Duration F %

1. 4 – 6 months 8 40
2. 1 – 3 months 3 15
3. 7 – 9 months 2 10
4. 10 – 12 months 2 10
5. More than 1 year 1 05
6. Not applicable(FCC run in jail) 4 20

Record maintenance
It was found that the records/registers maintained in FCCs were as per the
guidelines provided by State Social Welfare Boards i.e. case register, sub-committee
register, dispatch register, visitors register, awareness programme register, movement
register. While only 75 per cent counsellors found to have maintained dispatch register
and visitors register (See Table No. 4.11).
 Table 4.11: Types of Records maintained by a Counsellor
(Multiple response)
(N = 20)

Sl. No. Records F %

1. Case Register (13 Column) 16 80
2. Sub-committee Register 16 80
3. Dispatch Register 15 75
4. Visitors Register 15 75
5. Awareness prog. Register 14 70
6. Movement Register 13 65

When the counsellors were asked as to how long the records were kept at the FCC
of solved/other cases? In this context they categorically mentioned that none of the
records had been destroyed till date of any client visiting FCC. Further, when asked as to
who checked these records at their FCC, in response they mentioned that generally these
records were inspected by the welfare officers of the State Social Welfare Board visiting
from time to time to the FCC for monitoring.

The counsellors were asked about the authority that made a final decision for
closer of any case. The information in this regard showed that in most of the cases the
counsellor as well as the client were responsible for making a final decision for closer of
his/her case after reaching out to a compromise (Ikarar-nama) between the two parties.

To a query about the percentage of solved cases at the FCC, it was reported by the
counsellors that a majority of the cases reported at FCC were either solved or continued
as follow up where inputs were given to the parties from time to time and only a
negligible number of cases were dropped out after making a visit or two which in fact
was a fairly good performance. With regard to the re-opening of the cases, it was
informed by the counsellors that only about five percent cases were reopened per year
and the possible reason stated by counsellors for this was, breach of agreement made
between the two parties and resurfacing of differences between the couples. The
counsellors informed that in the process of solving of cases they take help from Police
department, district administration, legal advisor/ lawyers, NGOs helpline, women cell,
sub-committee, lok adalat, women commission, human right commission, etc. If all these
efforts failed then the counsellor encouraged the first party to file a case in the court.

The details of cases registered in the FCC during the last three years from 2005 –
2008 revealed that the highest number of cases were registered in the FCC located at
Mahila Sahayata Prakoshtha CBCID (468) apart from Nari Bandi Niketan (400). The
possible reason for such high turnout of the clients at CBCID could be the location of
FCC within the Police headquarters. This could be due to the fact that the clients believed
that they would get relief faster in comparison to other FCCs as this particular FCC was
backed and supported by the Police department (See Table No. 4.12).

Table 12: Status of Cases between 2005 – 2008

Sl. Name of the Name of the Total no. No. of No. of No. of
No. Organization State of solved drop running
registered cases out cases
cases cases
1. Karuna Sadan (ICSW), Haryana 144 108 - 36
Chandigarh
2. H.P. Mahila Kalyan Himachal 156 142 - 14
Mandal, Kullu Pradesh
3. Bihar
YMCA, Patna ,, 144 98 - 46
Karmbhoomi, Ara ,, 89 56 1 32
Ara jail (Shyam Khadi ,, 148 - - -
Gramodyog Sangh)
4. Sindoor tola Gramodyog Jharkhand 128 48 9 71
Vikas Vidyalaya, Ranchi
5. Uttar
Pradesh
CBCID, Lucknow ,, 468 223 41 204
Nari Bandi Niketan ,, 400 - - -
(FCC in jail), Lucknow
Sabla, Rai Bareilly ,, 309 123 6 180
Suraksha, Lucknow ,, 205 150 7 48
6. Sarvanchal Seva Samiti, Uttarakhand 218 198 - 20
Haridwar

Follow up and Home visits

As regards the home visits made by the counsellors, it was found that nearly all the
counsellors under took home visits for their clients as and when required or
approximately in the interval of 1 to 2 months. During their visits they tried to understand
the client’s family set up and interacted with other members of the family. The
counsellors further informed that they also faced some bitter experiences during home
visits made to the homes of their clients. Sometimes, people were very hostile and did not
allow them to enter their houses. Yet, they said there were some instances where the
client’s family members felt honoured and extended warm welcome to the counsellors.
When the counsellors were asked whether did they get conveyance allowances for
making home visits. To this query, all the counsellors said ‘yes’ they got the conveyance
allowance from the FCC. As regard the follow up, it was told that it was done up to six
months as within this period it was presumed that the dispute among the families would
have got settled down for a normal and stable life.
The counsellors were further asked as to how the follow up was done i.e. whether
by personal visits or telephonic call. It was revealed that majority of the counsellors made
follow up by telephone (70 per cent), personal visits (60 per cent), asked clients to make a
phone call (40 per cent), through letters, by sending someone to the clients house etc. In
some cases the clients were also instructed to come to FCC after a certain interval for
follow up (See Table no. 4.13).

Table 4.13: Means of undertaking follow up

(Multiple response)
(N = 20)
Sl. No. Means of Follow up F %
1. By telephone 14 70
2. Personal visit 12 60
3. Asked client to make a phone call 8 40
4. Through letter 4 20
5. By sending someone 1 5
6. N.A. 4 20

Panel of Experts

The counsellors were asked whether they had any panel of experts in their FCCs.
It was revealed that every FCC had a panel of experts or sub-committee which generally
comprised of three to four numbers including legal advisor, psychologist, social activists,
superintendent of Police/Police inspector, senior citizens, educationist, chief medical
officer, legal aid cell representatives, female constables and jail superintendent etc. This
panel of experts help the counsellors in critical cases by providing legal support and
expert opinion on various cases as and when required. Apart from the above support
systems, sometimes the lawyers help in getting the bail of the women prisoners. Majority
of the counsellors informed that they had meetings with the expert panel ‘quarterly’ (60
per cent) and the rest had six monthly or once in a year.
Organization of Awareness Programmes
The counsellors were asked to furnish information with regard to organization of
awareness programmes on issues pertaining to women. They revealed that almost all the
counsellors had organized various types of awareness programmes in the community.
The methods adopted for awareness building included ,Campaigns’ (35 per cent)
‘Mohalla Goshthis’ and ‘Talks’ (30 per cent), Advertisements in Newspapers Helpline
column (15 per cent) Screen Shows, Posters/Pamphlets, Hand bills, Cable Advertisement
and Wall writing etc. (See Table no. 4.14).
 Table 4.14: Type of awareness programmes done
(Multiple response)
(N = 20)

Sl. No. Awareness of Programmes F %

1. Campaigns 7 35
2. Mahila Goshthis 12 60
3. Newspapers (Helpline column) 3 15
4. Screen Shows/ Cable Advertisement 2 10
5. Posters/Pamphlets /Handbills/ Wall writing 3 15
6. N.A (FCCs run in jail premises) 4 20

The counsellors were asked whether they had any resource directory for referral
services. The data in this regard revealed that only 65 per cent of the counsellors had this
resource directory to facilitate clients to seek help and the rest had no such document
which is very important in any FCC.

Family Counselling Centre in Jail

Twenty-three FCCs have been set up in Mahila Jails in Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi,
Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Tamilnadu, Uttar
Pradesh, and West Bengal. The main objective of these setups is to provide psychological
and emotional support to women who were cut off from main stream society suddenly. In
the present study two FCCs in jail premises located in Lucknow, U.P. and Ara, in Bihar
were studied.
When these under trial women inmates arrived at jails they were found to be in
great mental trauma particularly those who were first time offenders as they were cut off
from their families and confined to four walls. This feeling of confinement uncertainty
about their future was the cause for going into depression. Hence, most of these women
in the initial stages presented symptoms of complete withdrawal, aggression, anger,
distrust, indiscipline etc.
In order to solve these behavioral problems and to help these women to come out
of this adverse situation, the counsellors were placed in jails under the FCC programme.
These counsellors also helped the inmates to sort out their day to day quarrels and reduce
feeling of guilt among the inmates. Besides, the counsellors placed at these prisons were
of a great help to link the inmates with their families and near and dear ones.
Counsellors working with inmates in Jail

In this study four counsellors were interviewed from the FCCs located at two
women Jails at (Nari Bandi Niketan) Lucknow U.P. and Ara Jail women cell, Bihar.
Since, these counsellors were working exclusively for women prisoners, so the questions
were specially framed for these counsellors.
 When the counsellors were asked as to what types of cases handled by FCCs
located in Jail premises. The counsellors informed that generally all kinds of cases were
taken up by them charged under various sections of IPC & Cr. PC, these included, dowry
deaths, robbery, murder, kidnapping, elopement, colluding with rapist, trafficking of
drugs, involving in counterfeit currency transaction etc.

Process of work with inmates in the Jail

As soon as any new prisoner arrived at the Jail, she was immediately registered by
the counselling centre and the counsellor took the details from the prisoner about herself
and her family in the form of a case history. It was revealed by the counsellors that the
inmates hesitated in the initial sittings to share information. However, in course of time
they felt comfortable to interact with them. During these interactions the counsellors
helped them to understand the jail setup the rules and regulations of the jail etc.

The counsellors were asked as to what kind of problems did these women
prisoners suffer from. To this query the counsellors informed that the majority of the
women prisoners suffer from tension and depression due to loneliness and being cut away
from their families and society. Often these inmates complained of headaches, high blood
pressure, migraine etc. and most of the time they found to be frustrated.

When asked what kind of support services the FCC or counsellors provided to
these women prisoners. The data pertaining to this query revealed that the counsellors
placed at the jail provided counselling and helped them to adjust with the environment.
Further, the FCCs provided services such as free distribution of postcards, help in letter
writing to inmates family, writing applications for illiterate women prisoners, and legal
help wherever required.

It was informed by the counsellors that majority of the women prisoners slipped
into depression as in due course of time the frequency of visits by their family members
decreased considerably and then slowly they stopped visiting them completely. This loss
of touch with near and dear ones made a majority of the inmates worry as to why their
family members were incommunicable and whether anything went wrong with them (self
– doubts) etc. In this situation, the role of counsellors made a big difference. The
counsellors working in these jail acted as a conduit between the prisoners and their
family. It was learned that in certain situations the family completely disowned the
inmate fearing social stigma making the feeling of isolation complete. In these cases the
counsellors played a crucial role in motivating the family members to initiate the legal
process to procure the release of the inmate.
Bridging the Gap
As mentioned earlier, one of the major problems which the inmates encountered
during their stay in the prison was lack of contact with their near and dear ones. It was
here, that the role of a counsellor was found to be extremely helpful. In these two jails a
total of 20 inmates were interviewed and almost all of them lauded the help provided by
the these counsellors. The help provided included contacting the client’s family members
by telephone, helping them write letters, conveying messages received from their families
etc. The counsellors provided the inmates with free postcards, taught illiterate inmates
reading, writing skills etc. Many a times it was seen that family member were least
interested to meet the inmates due to social stigma.
Free Legal Aid
To provide the facility of free legal aid to the inmates who were not capable of
hiring a lawyer, the FCCs functioning in jails had consultant lawyers who helped in
fighting the case for the inmates in the court. These lawyers got acquainted with the cases
and then gave advice to the inmates who were seeking legal support from the
organization. Apart from this, there were few advocates who also provided voluntary
legal support free of cost to the inmates from weaker sections who could not afford to
bear the court expenses.
Since majority of the inmates were from rural background and from poor families
they were not aware of their legal rights. In order to enhance the awareness level of these
inmates on legal rights, the FCCs functional in jails, from time to time organized “Legal
Awareness Camps” within the Jail premises. Through these camps these inmates were
educated about the various laws governing crime and the penalties imposed for different
crimes. This facilitated them to know about the legal actions which could be taken
against and punishment imposed for different criminal activities, thus acting as a
deterrent for the inmates to stop them from repeating the crime again in the future.
Besides, the non availability of information from the family, there were other
problems that were associated with these inmates. One of such problems was lack of
information regarding the proceeding of their cases in the courts. This situation really was
a cause of concern for majority of the inmates in jail and they were pre occupied with
thoughts such as, ‘who was taking care of her case in the court’, ‘was the advocate taking
adequate care of her case’, ‘what was the present position of the case’, ‘whether someone
was trying to get her bail or not’ etc. To facilitate the inmates in this situation, the FCC
collected the information regarding her advocate, contacted them to know about the
position of the case and later the same was passed on to the inmates.
Celebration of Festivals
During festival time, FCC also involved inmates in celebration of the same so that
they could feel at home and lessen the feeling of missing the families on these occasions.
The celebrations were completely planned and managed by the inmates themselves and
the counsellors were around to help them whenever they required it.

Financial Support
At times when the inmate had completed her full term in the Jail and was not in
position to pay the fine and her family members did not show up to receive her,
particularly in these situations the FCC helped in arranging money for paying the fine as
imposed by the court and to free the person .This way some inmates were being
facilitated by the counsellors and the FCC.

Care & Support to Children

Few of the inmates who were having small children were given some extra care
and support. The children were allowed in jail with their mothers till they attained the age
of seven years. In Ara jail the organization running the FCC had also set up a crèche
centre for children of women prisoners in the jail premises itself under the Rajiv Gandhi
scheme of assistance to voluntary organizations for crèches. The jail authorities built a
big room which had basic minimum facility to accommodate children of the inmates. The
crèche offered services of preschool education, nutrition etc. to children attending the
crèche as per the provisions of the said scheme. As per the Jail manual after the age of
seven years the children were not supposed to stay with their mothers who were serving
sentence in the jail and these children were shifted to Child Care Centres. In the
beginning these women showed resistance to send their children to Child Care Centres
but after counselling and motivation they usually came to terms with the hard realities.
Proper follow-up had been done by the counsellors at regular intervals after the child had
been sent to Child Care Centre, this follow up was helpful to the inmates as it kept them
informed about their children’s well being. Even at sometimes the counsellor visited
Child Care Centre to know the exact position in which the child was living. The FCC also
facilitated the meeting of mother and child on certain occasions and intervals. This effort
facilitated in keeping the inmates tension free about their children.

Other facilities provided by the FCC

Jail has its own health facility but the FCC functioning at the jail premises
organized health and hygiene camps so that the inmates could avail the benefits. The eye
testing camps and cataract operations were conducted by the organization with the help
of qualified doctors for affected inmates and they were provided with spectacles free of
cost.
The inmates had plenty of time at their disposal after completing their daily
routine. So to keep them busy and for making small earnings, the FCC at Nari Bandi
Niketan had established one “Tailoring Training and dress making centre” within the jail
premises. Interested inmates would regularly work in this centre and learn skills besides
earning some money out of these activities. The FCC facilitated in getting orders of
school dress from Government schools so that the inmates could have sufficient work at
their disposal. On the whole the FCCs functioning in the jail premises were in a way
trying to help the inmates who were in need of care and support. Particularly, the
counsellors were playing a very important role of link between the family and the
inmates. The counselling done by them at regular intervals boosted the self confidence
among the inmates and kept them in good spirits. There were various instances wherein
the counsellors helped to bring together the family and the inmates as these families had
disowned them completely due to social stigma of being in jail.
As regards the limitations faced by the counsellors in the FCCs functional in the
jail premises, it was informed that although counsellors wanted to help the women
prisoners but rules and regulations of the Jail created hurdles for free functioning. The jail
authorities often did not take initiatives to make a difference in the lives of these
prisoners due to rigid rules. The work of the FCC largely depended on the individuals
like the jail superintendent i.e. if he was accommodative and believed in the philosophy
of reformation then the work by FCC went on smoothly or else lot of time required to be
spent in convincing the authorities for undertaking any kind of activity. Further, the kind
of rapport built by the organizational head and counsellors with the jail personnel was an
important determining factor to carry out work with the jail inmates. It was quite often
seen that many women prisoners from poor economic background needed free legal Aid
as they were not able to afford to have a lawyer to defend. However, in such cases the
FCCs were trying to help some of these women by providing a lawyer wherever possible
but these FCCs were finding it difficult to stretch further as there was no provision in the
scheme to pay even a nominal fee to the lawyer.

Honorarium and Job satisfaction

The counsellors were asked whether they got honorarium regularly. The responses
in this regard were very discouraging and only 15 percent counsellors were found to have
received their honorarium regularly and the rest had to wait for very long to get it. When
asked, what was the frequency of receiving it, to this, they informed that more than half
of them were getting their honorarium once in six months, twenty percent once in nine
months etc. see table below for details.

Table 4.15: Frequency of Getting Salary

Sl. No. Frequency F %

1. Regularly 3 15
2. Once in three months 2 10
3. Once in six months 11 55
4. Once in nine months & above 4 20
Total 20 100
 The irregular payment of honorarium to staff was a single most important problem
being faced by these FCCs. It was observed that only those organizations that had other
programmes, could divert their funds for payment of honorarium to the staff of FCC. In
fact, many counsellors said that the honorarium itself was too meagre i.e. Rs.7,000/- (A
class city) and Rs.5,500/- (B class city) compared to the price index and compounded by
the irregular payment of honorarium, was the main cause for the counsellors to leave the
job with FCCs and it was resulting in depletion of the trained man power in the
organization. Those who continued, in spite of these difficulties however, had low morale
and poor motivation and they were always on the lookout for better prospects.
The counsellors were further asked whether their organizations supported them
when grants reached late. To this query, nearly all the counsellors said ‘yes’ the
organization supported them and many a times organizations paid them from their own
resources. But sometimes it became difficult for the organizations also to manage the
payment of the FCC staff when the grant was delayed for nine to twelve months as
happened quite often.
Further, they were asked whether they were satisfied with their work or not. To
this query majority of them responded in affirmative and added that the role they played
in helping a needy and helpless person and reunite the family gave them tremendous
satisfaction. As regards the women prisoners the counsellors working in the jail premises
felt that these women needed their support more than anybody else because there was no
one to understand their feelings and emotions. Whereas, a few counsellors were of the
view that they lacked facilities and funds, further they said that in spite of their hard work
and best possible efforts, at times they felt helpless to bring the second party to a
compromise and help the clients as they lacked legal powers.
The counsellors were asked as to what additional role they play in the organization
apart from counselling. The responses in this regard showed that the counsellors were
engaged in other project activities of their organization and their role included that of a
resource mobilizer, administrator and monitor for other projects undertaken by these
organizations. In short, it can be said that the counsellors were used as a multipurpose
workers in almost all the organizations surveyed for the study.
The counsellors were asked to specify the areas in which they needed training
which could help them to function more effectively as counsellors. Responses indicated
the areas which included; Prevention of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005;
Counselling; Women Rights; information related Women Issues; Laws related to
Marriage; Right to Information Act; Documentation; Training for effective functioning of
FCCs.
Chapter V

The Clients
A total of forty-five clients were interviewed from eleven FCCs spread over six
North Indian states. Among which the two clients were male and the rest were females. It
is also worth mentioning here that out of the total forty five clients, eight women
prisoners were interviewed from two district jails located at Lucknow (U.P.) and Ara
(Bihar). A separate interview schedule was developed to collect precise data from these
women prisoners.
As regard the clients from general FCCs it was found that a majority of them had
two to three years of married life. It was also observed that majority of the clients who
had reported at FCCs, had married with their parent’s choice whereas, only few clients
had chosen their own life partners.
The majority (86 per cent) of the clients said that there was no dispute at the time
of marriage but it occurred in due course of time. While analyzing the type of problems
of the clients at the time of registering the case, it was revealed that more than 80 per cent
clients reported that they were harassed by their husbands (See Table no. 5.1).

Table 5.1: Type of problems reported by clients at FCCs

(Multiple response)
(N = 37)

Sl. No. Type of Problems F %

1. Harassment by husband/Domestic Violence 30 81
2. Adjustment problem 17 46
3. Harassment by in laws 11 30
4. Dowry demand 10 27
5. Extra marital affairs 8 22
6. Drug abuse/Alcohalism 4 11
7. Sexual abuse 1 3
8. Others 4 11

While analyzing the data it was seen that the majority of the clients reported (41
per cent) that the harassment started ‘immediately after marriage’ followed by one year
37 per cent and about 14 per cent clients reported that harassment started after over 3
years of married life. This information indicated that the beginning of harassment did not
have any definite point of time or time frame (See Table no. 5.2).
 Table 5.2: Harassment after Marriage

Sl. No. Time period F %

1. Immediate after marriage 15 41
2. After 1 year 14 37
3. 3 year & more 9 22
Total 37 100
When the clients were asked as to what kind of harassment were they undergoing,
to this query majority of the clients (59 per cent), mentioned ‘Abuse’ and ‘Physical
assault’ were the main types of harassments. Whereas 54 per cent reported ‘Threats’ and
followed by attempt to murder (6 per cent) (See Table no. 5.3).
Table 5.3: Type of Harassment
(Multiple response)
(N = 37)

Sl. No. Type of harassment F %

1. Abuses /calling names 22 59
2. Physical assault 22 59
3. Threats 20 54
4. Attempt to murder 2 6
5. Others 1 3

When clients were asked as to who helped them at the time of crises, to this, thirty
five per cent clients told that they directly got help from the FCCs, 46 per cent clients told
that their ‘Parents’ came to their rescue, eleven per cent said that the whole natal family
stood by them. When they were further probed whether they tried to take the help of
women cell at the local Police station, a majority responded in negative and only 22 per
cent of the cases tried to get in touch with Police though. This made it clear that a lot of
effort required to be done to educate the women and the community in order that they
approach the right place for help (See Table no. 5.4).

Table 5.4: Persons who helped the client at the time of crises

Sl. No. Persons F %

1. Parents 17 46
2. FCC 13 35
3. Whole family 4 11
4. Relatives – helped in compromise 2 5
5. Neighbours 1 3
Total 37 100
 When clients who had approached the Police station (22 per cent) were asked
whether they got proper response at the Police station the reaction of the respondents to
this query was mixed i.e. a few of them mentioned that they were heard properly by the
Police and tried to help them, whereas, some of them said that they were asked to come
later and were completely ignored as in these cases the 2nd party was influential. It
seemed that the Police response depended on the stature of the second party i.e. if the
second party is influential then the client did not stand any chance to be heard unless she
took the help of FCC or NGOs or Media as it happened in few cases interviewed for the
study.

The clients were asked as to who guided them to seek help from FCC. The data in
this respect revealed that about one third of the clients came to know about FCC through
solved cases (former), followed by those clients who came to know about it from ‘their
friends’ (22 per cent), 16 per cent through ‘Mahila Goshthis’ and 14 per cent through
relatives etc. (See Table no. 5.5).

Table 5.5: Information about FCC

Sl. No. Source F %

1. Through solved cases 11 30
2. Friends 8 22
3. Through Mahila Goshthis 6 16
4. Relatives 5 14
5. NGOs 4 11
6. Through cable advertisement 1 3
7. Neighbours 1 3
8. FCC took up the case after going 1 3
through the newspaper report
Total 37 100

The clients further probed as to what were their expectations when they first
approached FCC. The responses received from the clients were varied in this regard and
differed from client to client based on their type of problems. A few of them thought that
they would get all help from FCC in settling down their disputes. Some of them were of
the opinion that FCCs would help them to get compensations from their husbands
through proper legal support or they may mediate to work out some compromise, yet a
few of the clients expected that the FCCs would send their husbands behind the bars as
they were physically assaulting them.

It was found that after meeting the counsellor all the clients felt that they had came
to a right place and the attitude of the counsellor was positive towards their problem.
When the clients were asked whether the counsellors could help them as per their
expectations. In response the clients said, yes they could and listed a number of ways by
which they were helped. Majority of the clients mentioned that FCCs helped them to
build their self confidence, provided psychological support and helped to settle the
dispute by providing legal advice and for reaching out to a compromise formula.

In addition, it was also seen that FCCs could also put pressure on the Police to
register cases wherever it was seen to be reluctant to do it. Some FCCs also provided
legal support free of cost for deserving and needy clients for fighting cases in the court.
Further, some FCCs also provided shelter in short stay homes and also arranged
marriages for the clients where it was possible.

As regards the advocate’s facility provided by the FCC to the client, it was found
that (32 per cent) clients were provided services of an advocate while (68 per cent) clients
never required any such type of service. Those clients who were provided with
advocate’s services had to pay court fees as admissible.

The clients were asked whether the counsellors had helped them by visiting their
homes, the responses in this regard showed that in majority (76 per cent) of the cases the
counsellors made home visits to the clients houses for collecting information and to
understand physical set up and family dynamics. As mentioned elsewhere their visits
were never liked by the accused/ second party and in some places they were treated
badly. In about 24 per cent cases the counsellors never made any visit probably because
the situation never demanded for it.

The clients were asked whether they came to visit FCC for follow up. The
information in this regard revealed that out of the total clients, majority (75 per cent) said
that they came to FCC for follow up visits to inform about their well being. The rest of
the clients (22 per cent) had said that they did not come to FCC for follow up visits once
their case was closed or solved.

The present study showed that over two third of women who had been married had
faced some physical violence in their married lives and it ranged from being pushed,
slapped, and beaten hard by their husbands at least once. Slapping was the most common
act of physical violence by husbands. It was also reported by some women that their
husbands pulled their hair or twisted their arm and hurled household objects at them.
Apart from this they were also emotionally tortured.

As for the types of violence faced by the clients, the responses in this regard
showed that a majority (83 per cent) of the clients faced ‘mental torture’ followed by
‘physical torture (77 per cent), put to financial hardships (54 per cent) and sexual abuse
(9 per cent). In all these cases the husbands or in-laws were involved (See Table no. 5.6).
 Table 5.6: Type of Violence/harassment faced by the clients.
(Multiple response)
(N = 35)

Sl. No. Response F %

1. Mental torture 29 83
2. Physical torture 27 77
3. Sexual Abuse 3 9
4. Financial hardships 19 54

The opinions of clients were also obtained regarding the possible reasons for
violence and harassment that these women had to face. The responses showed that more
than half of the clients mentioned ‘Dowry’ (60 per cent) as a main reason for
violence/harassment. Another (57 per cent) clients said that violence occurred and
women were harassed due to ‘Alcoholism’, followed by the clients who gave the reasons
like for committing ‘Small mistakes’ (57 per cent) for ‘not giving birth to a male child’
(49 per cent), suspicion of ‘Extra marital relations’ (26 per cent), ‘for not conceiving’ (3
per cent) etc. see table below for details.

Table 5.7: Reasons of Violence

(Multiple response)
(N = 35)

Sl. No. Reasons stated by Respondents F %

1. Dowry 21 60
2. Alcoholism 20 57
3. For committing trivial mistakes 20 57
4. Not giving birth to male child 17 49
5. Suspicion of Extra marital relations 9 26
6. For not procreation of children 1 3
7. Others 8 24

These respondents stated that they tried to compromise with the situation and
stayed with the strained relationship as often they found no place to move away from the
family and support herself or her children due to lack of employment. They often got
humiliated and abused yet stayed with the family due to fear that her friends, family and
community will blame her for having broken the family. But when the situation got out of
hands they decided to approach a place like Family Counselling Centre for help.

The clients were further asked as to why women bear violence. The opinion of
majority of the clients (66 per cent) revealed that women bear violence as they ‘feel
helpless’ whereas, thirty one per cent clients informed that women bear violence because
they take it as a destiny, followed by those who said that they didn’t know how to react
(31 per cent) and a few felt it was alright (11 per cent). Sometimes it becomes a habit of
woman to bear the violence (9 per cent) etc. (See Table no. 5.8).

Table 5.8: Reasons for which Women bear Violence

(Multiple response)
(N = 35)

Sl. No. Opinions F %

1. Feel helpless 23 66
2. Destiny 11 31
3. Don’t know how to react 11 31
4. Feel it alright 4 11
5. It becomes a habit 3 9

The clients were asked to give their opinion on ‘whether women themselves were
cause for violence’? About half (49 per cent) of the clients said ‘no’ while forty three per
cent clients said ‘yes’ women themselves were cause for violence and nine per cent
clients said can’t say .
The clients who said ‘yes’ were further probed as to how women themselves were
the cause for violence, then out of the 15 clients a majority 53 per cent clients mentioned
that women themselves were cause for violence because they never resist. Whereas 33
per cent said that women themselves promote it by tolerating it and rest thought that it
was their destiny (14 per cent).

When the respondents were asked as to who did more violence against women, the
responses in this regard revealed that majority (63 per cent) of the clients said that
husband did more violence followed by mothers-in-law (46 per cent), sisters-in-law (20
per cent), fathers-in-law (14 per cent) and brother-in-law (3 per cent). Few clients (20 per
cent) mentioned that sometimes all the above categories of people join together to harass
women particularly in dowry cases (See Table no. 5.9).

Table 5.9: Person who does more violence on woman

(Multiple response)
(N = 35)

Sl. No. Persons F %

1. Husband 22 63
2. Mother-in-law 16 46
3. Sister-in-law 7 20
4. Relatives 7 20
5. Father-in-law 6 17
6. Brother-in-law 1 3
 The clients were asked ‘Are women aware of laws’ which safeguard them? The
responses in this regard showed that only 37 per cent of the clients said ‘Yes’ that they
were aware of laws’ which safeguard them while rest of the clients about 63 per cent
responded in negative.

The study pointed out the fact that many women were not even informed about
their rights. In rural areas a good number of women were made to believe that wife
beating is justified. In metropolitan or urban areas, even if a few women were aware of
laws, the complexity and technicalities of law and legal procedures prevent many to use
it. Social stigma, family pressures, cost involved in filing a legal case, delay in getting
justice, biased attitude of Police etc. were found to be the impediments for seeking
justice.

Thirty seven per cent respondents who had said that they were aware of the laws
were further asked, which laws they were aware of. The responses in this regard included
Child Marriage Act, 85 per cent, Dowry Prohibition Act, 46 per cent, Protection of
Women from Domestic Violence Act, 31 per cent and law related to Rape 8 per cent. It
was found that majority of these respondents only had heard about the name of the laws
and were not aware with the details and the provisions of the laws (See Table no. 5.10).

Table 5.10: Type of laws which women aware of

(Multiple response)

Sl. No. Type of laws %

1. Child marriage Act 85
2. Dowry Prohibition Act 46
3. Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 31

The clients were further asked as to ‘why most of the women do not use existing
laws for their benefits’? A majority 77 per cent of the clients said that women did not use
laws because they were not aware of these laws in the first place. Further nine per cent of
clients mentioned that women ‘feel helpless’ in using it, followed by six per cent who
said that women do not have money to fight their cases etc.

The respondents were asked as to in their opinion what is the best way to fight
against violence. A majority 69 per cent of the respondents said that education and
economic independence of women are the best way to fight against violence. Change in
the male mindset was mentioned by the rest.

Experiences of those working with the victims of domestic violence indicated the
difficulties faced by women in getting the case registered or lodging a FIR (First
Information Report). Conviction rate is abysmally low not because the cases were false
but because the trial takes a long time and takes toll because of which many complainants
find it difficult to sustain through long and tardy legal process. Many cases were not
reported because women lack knowledge or resources or they do not consider domestic
violence as a violation.

It may be said that there is need to address the issue of violence within domestic
relationship. Domestic violence is a multi – dimensional problem and needs to be
addressed from different perspectives. Any law alone is not sufficient to deal with the
issue. What is required is a will to address domestic violence as a public matter. More
specifically in the Indian context it is significant to address the related dimension of
domestic violence for instance, lack of support services, legal aid, shelter homes, lack of
awareness about the law and the legal procedures and most important is beliefs and
attitudes that justify the domestic violence on one account or the other. Underlying all
the above is the need to nurture boys with an abiding respect for girls and women in
general. Care and nurture values within the home are sacrosanct in building a solid
foundation for mutual respect and family well – being.

Inmates in Jail

In this study eight women prisoners were interviewed from two jails located at
Lucknow (Nari Bandi Niketan) and Bihar (Ara Jail). The data in this regards revealed
that majority of the women prisoners fell within the age group of twenty to forty five
years and were found to be illiterate. Further, it was seen that the majority of the women
prisoners were booked under dowry Prohibition Act, murder, and forgery and they were
under trials.

When the women prisoners were asked about the help provided to them by the
FCC, they revealed that the FCC helped them in number of ways, viz. worked as a link
between them and their families (by way of writing letters to their family members or
making telephone calls and passing on information about their families’), building their
confidence and motivating them all the time. These women were found to be worried
about their children and other members whom they had left behind and often it was a
primary cause of depression among the women prisoners for this very reason. The
counsellors from FCCs were found to be very effective in bridging this gap among the
women prisoners and their families. Since the women prisoners lived in isolation and
they were cut off from outside world as a result their spirits were low and emotionally
they were found to be disturbed. This led to frequent fights with co-prisoners over trivial
issues. Under the circumstances, it was found that the counselling services provided were
helpful to pacify their charged emotions. It was also revealed that the counsellors had
gone a step forward in creating awareness among inmates about their legal rights and
helped in getting free legal aid to needy prisoners.
 It was found that jail authorities had arranged some educational classes for these
women to make them literate to an extent. Further, they had also arranged facilities for
vocational training within the jail premises. The basic objective behind the vocational
training was to enable these women prisoners to develop some skills of their own interest
like cutting, tailoring and embroidery etc., which could fetch them some money and keep
them occupied.

It was observed that FCCs were in jail set ups playing a very important role in the
lives of women prisoners by providing them emotional, psychological, and legal support
and helping these women prisoners to cope with unpleasant situation having occurred in
their lives.

Briefs on some cases reported at different FCCs:

A retired defense person was harassing his wife physically and mentally to the
extent that she opted to get rid of him by taking divorce. For this, she approached FCC
for help. The counsellors at the FCC had separate counselling sessions with both wife and
husband to sort out the dispute between the couples. After a few counseling sessions, it
was found that the major problem between the couple was lack of communication and
opportunity for the wife to express her displeasure over the behaviour of her husband.
Whereas her husband was completely unaware that his behaviour was causing such a
discomfort to his wife and she was contemplating for taking divorce. Finally, the
misunderstandings between the couples were sorted out by the counsellors and their
intervention helped the family from a possible split.

It was found that 46 per cent clients reported ‘Adjustment problems with their
husbands’ at the time of registration of their cases at the FCCs. In this regard yet another
unique case was found at FCC Suraksha, Lucknow, where a newly married girl filed a
case against her husband and in-laws under Domestic Violence Act. As the case was
taken up by the FCC and during the course of investigation the counsellors found that it
was simply a case of adjustment problem and the girl who filed a case against her
husband and in-laws wanted to live separately with husband alone and did not like the
company of in-laws. She was so irritated in the set up that she took the extreme step to
file a case against all including her husband. The FCC intervened and had separate
counselling sessions with in-laws, husband and complainant. The counseling helped in
sorting out differences between the parties for an amicable settlement.

Further 27 per cent clients reported dowry related violence. In this regards a case
from Kullu FCC could be a best fit to explain as to how a whole family had gone on to
inflict torture on a hapless person for the lust of dowry. In this case after a few months of
marriage the in-laws started inflicting physical torture on the client for more dowry from
her parents. She tolerated physical onslaught for quite some time thinking that they could
improve later on. Instead the events took a very ugly turn as one day they locked her up
in the bathroom and thrashed her very badly. The client somehow managed to escape
from there and later she approached FCC for help. The FCC helped in a separation
formula as the situation had gone bad to worse and there was a danger to her life and
helped the client and her natal family in retrieving her belongings from her in-laws.

In another dowry case a client after having got married for two years was harassed
for dowry both by her husband and in-laws. However, her parents were unable to fulfill
the demands. As a result, she was tortured every day and was burnt. The FCC helped the
client’s family to file a case with the Police, later the family settled with compensation
for treatment from her husband. Earlier the case had been closed by the Police after the
accused had camouflaged it to be an attempt of suicide by the victim. However, with the
active involvement of the FCC and the media the case was re-opened and some justice
had been done to the hapless victim’s family.

Yet in another case the victim was not as lucky and she died. The accused were so
influential that the Police refused to register the case, as according to them it was a
suicide case. The FCC took up the case after going through the Newspaper reports and
helped the victim’s family to re-open the case. The counsellors relentlessly helped the
victim’s family and put pressure on the Police. They provided legal support for fighting
the case in the court. The FCC also involved National Women Commission and the
Human Rights Commission for further support. Finally the FCC helped the victim’s
family in conviction of the culprits.

Extra Marital Affairs were reported by 22 per cent of the clients. In this regards a
case dealt by FCC Sabla was worth mentioning. The client was working as an Asha Bahu
in her village. Her husband was a drug addict and alcoholic. He was very doubtful about
his wife’s character as she went out for work. Due to this he always tortured his wife
physically and mentally. The case was successfully handled by the FCC and helped the
client.

A case of abuse was reported by a girl in the FCC at Raibareily. Her step father
made sexual advances at her with the consent of her real mother. Further, they both
wanted to use her to earn money for them. In this case the FCC played a proactive role in
protecting her interests and arranged her marriage.

Yet in another sexual harassment case a young women registered a case against
her father-in-law. As her father-in-law was making advances and was on the lookout for
exploiting her sexually. It was interesting to note that her husband was impotent and the
accused was fully aware of this fact. The girl approached the FCC and they helped her
obtain divorce from her husband.

In another case of extra marital affair, a man who was already married, had sexual
relations with a girl who was his neighbor. This relation continued for quite a while and
the client got pregnant. After the girl had disclosed the facts to her parents, the parents
wanted to marry off the girl with the same person as it was a practical solution which
they could see at that point of time. However, the man refused to marry the girl under the
pressure from his wife. Then the parents of the girl approached the FCC for help. The
FCC helped her by providing legal and Police support as the man’s parents and father-in-
law were opposed to the second marriage. Later, a compromise formula was worked out
by counsellors of the FCC involving all the parties concerned and got the girl married off
to him, thus making her his second wife. Presently she has been leading a normal life
with three children. In fact, it may not sound to be an ideal settlement for the problem but
the client was saved from further exploitation by the family and the community.

A client aged around 33 years registered a complaint at FCC of neglect against her
husband. She got married to this man when she was 16 years. It was an arranged marriage
between two cousins as they were Muslims. She never liked this person right from her
childhood however, due to some family compulsions she got married to him. She
reportedly had two grown up children but her married life was troublesome. This couple
did not have trust in each other as a result there were spates of allegations and counter
allegations against each other’s character. At one occasion the client took oath on
religious book and proclaimed that she would never have any physical relations in life
with him owing to his allegations on her character. A long period of five years had passed
by since she took this oath and still was up with this rigid stand. Her husband tried to
compromise on many issues and took help of her own relatives to persuade her to come
out of that rigid stand but all his efforts went in vain. Finally, he cut off his relations with
her although they were living under the same roof with children. The case was not yet
closed and the FCC was still working with this couple and trying hard to work out a
suitable compromise to save the family from breaking.

A girl aged around 17 years had friendly relations with her neighbor aged 22
years. The relation got so intimate that he eloped with her and went to an undisclosed
location. He lived with this girl for about 3 – 4 months and left her when he came to
know that she was pregnant. Her parents persuaded the boy to marry her but he did not
agree to it. Then her parents registered a case with FCC against the boy. The counsellor
summoned the boy to the FCC for consultations however, he refused to appear. Then the
FCC registered a case with the local Police of elopement of minor girl against the boy.
Fearing serious repercussions the boy and his family met the counsellor of the FCC. Then
a meeting was fixed for both the parties at the FCC to work out a compromise formula.
After a series of consultations and counselling sessions the boy agreed to marry the girl.
The marriage was solemnized and presently the couple is living together and has a child
(Please see chapter 6 for case studies in detail).
Chapter VI

Case Studies
Case No. 1

A client aged 49 years was married to an army officer for 30 years. Post marriage
the couple lived together for four and a half years. The couple had three children. In order
to ensure quality education for the three children the family decided that the children
along with their mother live in Kullu. It was a smooth life the children grew up and the
eldest daughter got married. After fifteen years the client’s husband took Voluntary
Retirement from army, and joined a college as a lecturer which was located near Kullu
and lived with family. However, soon after the client began finding it difficult to live
with Mr. X as Mr. X was a heavy drinker and his morning started with a glass of whisky.
Besides his alcoholism his general behaviour was a cause of concern for the family. He
used foul language, compounded with excessive demand for sex. Day by day the
situation began getting from bad to worse. The client shared her problems with her close
relatives but nobody helped her. The client and her daughter were fed up with quarrels
which became a daily affair. Soon some of her distant relatives told her about the FCC,
presuming that it might help her in a way.

The client visited the FCC and shared her problems with the counsellor. She had
reached a point where she was willing to share the same house, living on separate floors,
while managing a common kitchen, but could not have any physical relations with her
husband.

The counsellor had a series of sessions with her and gave her psychological
support and helped her to develop confidence in herself. Then the counsellor contacted
Mr. X and invited him to the FCC. When Mr. X learned that his wife had approached the
FCC with a grievance against him, he was stunned as he had never imagined that his wife
would go out of the house and discuss intimate family problems with strangers. The
counsellor spoke to him and tried to explain how his behaviour had caused his wife
severe emotional problems and affected her mental make up to her detriment. To his
credit Mr. X listened patiently to the counsellor and shared his points of view.

The counsellor made several home visits and tried her level best to bring the
couple to a compromise. She regularly counselled both of them in several counselling
sessions. With the passage of time there was marked improvement in Mr. X’s behaviour,
he realized his excesses overbearing behaviour and compared them with sacrifices made
by his wife in bringing up his children single handedly. Fortunately the efforts of the
counsellor bore fruit and the couple resolved their differences and agreed to live together.
 In this case the FCC played a very crucial role in bringing the couple to a
compromise and thus saved a 30 years old marriage which was about to break due to
severe differences, incompatibility and lack of communication.
Case No. 2

A client, 35 years old was happily living with his wife along with his four
children. Suddenly one day his wife developed fever and died. His old mother was
worried about his children as to who would look after them as they were very small. Six
months after the death of his wife, his mother began pressurizing her son to remarry. The
mother had already chosen a girl, who she hoped would look after his children and home.
For the sake of children the client agreed and got married to Ms. X. Everything seemed to
be alright for few days but later on Mrs. ‘X’ went back to her parental house. After a
fortnight, the client went to his wife’s house but Mrs. X refused to accompany him and
said that she would come later after a week or so at the end of the week when the client
went to his wife’s house she refused to return to the house and demanded two thousand
rupees. The client came back alone, but a few days later a policeman came to the client’s
house and told his mother that Mrs. X had filed a case under section 498 (A), against the
whole family. Later the family was called by the Thana In- charge where they were
treated like offenders at the Police station, they kept trying to convince the Thana In-
charge of their innocence but to no avail.

The whole episode was informed to client’s relatives. His mother was very
worried about him. Some of his relatives informed his mother about the FCC. Without
wasting any time she rushed to FCC ‘Suraksha’. In Suraksha she told everything to the
counsellor and showed the copy of FIR, in which section 498 (A) and 504 were
mentioned. The secretary of the organization after hearing the entire story directed her
counsellor to send a letter to the Superintendent of Police and Director General of Police.
Later the secretary went to Mrs. X’s house to ascertain the real facts and requested her to
come to the FCC. She accepted and came to the FCC with her sister-in-law. When the
counsellor asked her why she had lodged FIR against her husband, she said that while she
was living with her husband (the client), she was completely ignored by him as if she was
not his wife. She felt that she was there to look after his four children (from first wife)
and do the household work. He was always busy with his work and after that with his
children. He gave her no time and attention. Sometime he did not even try to find out if
she had eaten or not. After listening to her the counsellor called the client and spoke to
him. Later she had separate sessions with both the parties. The client realized his wrong
doings. Later a joint session was arranged where intensive interaction took place between
the couple. Both of them were told that the problem was not as serious that one should go
for lodging an FIR.

Finally, with the efforts of the FCC, in the presence of the Thana In-charge and the
counsellor a ‘Sulah Samjotha’ was made between the two parties and the couple got
reunited. A happy ending!
 Case No. 3
An 18 year old girl (the client) was married to a businessman. On the reception
night when she was with her husband, the couple heard very loud shouting. The client
immediately opened the door. She saw his sister-in-law (husband’s Bhabhi) was standing
at door. She (Bhabhi) started shouting at her husband. Then he (her husband) went out
from the room along with his Bhabhi. Another night the client woke up at mid night and
found that her husband was not in the room. She kept on waiting for him, after about two
hours or so her husband came back. When she asked him about where he was, he said
that he was in the toilet. A number of nights passed like this. One night again she found
that her husband was not sleeping in the room. That night she started searching for him.
When she was passing through his sister-in-laws room she heard some whispers, it was
the voice of her husband, then she stepped in the room and was shocked as she found her
husband with his sister-in-law in a compromising position. She started crying then her
husband came out of the room but his sister-in-law scolded her and said that if she
disclosed incident to anyone she would ruin her life completely. The client was very
afraid and upset. When confronted, her husband accepted his relations with his sister-in-
law but he said that soon he would stop this relationship.

The client thought that she would change her husband by giving him true love and
care. But instead of stopping the relationship his sister-in-law started harassing the client.
The situation was deteriorating daily and the two continued with the relationship. Later,
her husband also started harassing and abusing her. As a result, the client was both
physically and mentally shuttered. Her health began deteriorating and she became a
patient of low blood pressure and depression. But she never discussed her problems with
anyone. However, in one of her visits to her parents home her parents could gauge that
something was wrong somewhere with her. They insisted that she tell them the truth as
they sensed something a miss the truth. The family members were shocked when she
disclosed the whole facts to her parents. They wanted to speak with their son-in-law but
he refused. In the meantime, they got to know about the FCC and contacted them for
help. After registering the case with the FCC her husband was called. In the interview her
husband pointed out many negative things about the client. He alleged that his wife’s
character was of doubtful, besides being a jealous person.

Several consultations later with the counsellors, the client and her family decided
to go for divorce, as neither was the husband’s position improving, nor was any solution
forthcoming. This marriage headed for divorce.

Case No. 4

A 19 year old girl was brought to FCC run by Sabla , a voluntary organization by
Mr. X. He told the In-charge of FCC that he found the girl near Shahid Smarak, in
Lucknow. He got to know about FCC and Short Stay Home through his neighbours. A
case was promptly registered. The girl was very afraid to reveal her real identity, and
gave a fictitious name. The FCC informed the details of the case to Thana In-charge. In
the police station her fictitious name was matched with a missing girl report that was
already registered. Following that report Police informed the concerned person who had
filed missing girl report. He came and after seeing the girl he said, she was not the one
who had gone missing but he knew the father of this girl. He also revealed that her name
was Ms. X, and she belonged to a Muslim family and they resided in his village. Next
day when the counsellor of FCC had a session with her, she disclosed the facts that her
step father was troubling her with the consent of her real mother. They even planned to
use her to earn money. After learning about it she ran away from home she revealed. The
following day, her mother came to the FCC to take her back but the client refused to go
with her. She told the counsellor that she wanted to go to school for studies but her
mother never allowed. After few days her mother came again to the FCC along with her
husband (the girl’s step father). Yet again the girl refused to go to her home and kept
crying saying that these so called parents would spoil her life. She expressed her desire to
stay back in the Short Stay Home and continue her studies. Accordingly, the FCC
provided her books for 9th standard and she was given training in stitching and
embroidery also.

In due course of time she expressed her desire to get married to a boy whom she
liked and he used to help her whenever she had problem at her home. She said she would
marry him only if he was willing. Then the counsellor called that boy and talked to him.
He was willing but his parents had reservations. After a few counselling sessions with his
parents they finally said ‘yes’ to this marriage. The date of marriage was fixed the
‘Baraat’ came to FCC, the client was given clothes, jewellery and many other things by
the organization as is the practice for any marriage. The formalities of ‘Nikah’ were done
by ‘Hafiz ji’, in the presence of the press, electronic media and members of the voluntary
organization.

After a few days of her marriage she visited the FCC along with her husband and
met the counsellor and other workers of the organization with whom she spent her days.
She told them that she was very happy with her husband and his family.

Case No. 5

A client, handsome boy of 27 years, after completing his graduation started

working in a private company as a manager and was drawing a good salary package. He
got married and for about two years they lived happily. But later, on account of minor
squabbles the client’s wife went back to her parents house and refused to come back to
her husband.
 So he decided to take help from a professional agency and registered a case with
FCC – CBCID. He reported that his father-in-law was not sending his wife back although
he tried several times but failed. After interacting with the client the counsellor decided to
call the 2nd party for discussion. After discussion with both the parties some facts
surfaced which were as follows:

According to his wife, her husband (the client) never had any problem with regard
to her visits to her father’s house but her father always wanted that she accompanied her
husband (the client) whenever she visited him as he was stanch believer in traditions.
Further, it was revealed that her father was a very short tempered man and even after
marriage, he interfered in every matter pertaining to the couple and involved in decision
making on behalf of his daughter.

After discussion with both the parties it was found that the only dispute among
them was his wife’s inclination towards her parents particularly her father. Furthermore,
his wife was also not very much comfortable in her In-laws house and there were some
adjustment problems.

Interestingly, the findings of the discussion which took place between the
counsellor and the client revealed that he had no problems with his wife and he loved her.
He wanted to settle the case so that he could lead a peaceful life.

Although the reasons narrated were very trivial in nature but because of the same
the family was at the juncture of divorce. Considering all the facts and by listening to
both the parties, the counsellor took several sessions with the client’s father-in-law and
wife.

The counsellor reasoned out with his father-in-law as to how his little interferences
were creating disturbances in his daughter’s married life, in case these continued it might
be very difficult for her to adjust. He was further told that he needed to take view on this
and take a decision. At the same time the counsellor also had a detailed session with the
client’s wife and facilitated her to analyze pros. & cons. of the matter and take a decision
as to how to balance her relations.

After several sittings with both father and daughter, things started falling in place
for the young couple. Finally a ‘Sullah-nama’ was worked out between the parties.
Presently the couples were well settled and happy. The counsellor continues to contact
the couple as a follow up measure, from time to time.

Case No. 6

A client aged 27 years was having a retail shop in a market, in Lucknow. He got
married to a 25 years old girl. The whole family was happy and lived together for one and
a half year without any dispute. When she was reported pregnant some traditional but
difficult conditions were imposed on her. Her movements were restricted as she was not
allowed to go to her parent’s home because she had to cross a river, which was thought to
be inauspicious during pregnancy.

In the intervening time, she gave birth to a baby boy. Since the client’s mother was
a traditional lady, was always worried about the little boy and even sometimes she over
reacted on petty issues. Most of the times the client’s wife tried to avoid confrontation but
slowly things started getting bad to worse. It was more than a year since she last saw her
parents, so she requested her mother-in-law for a permission to visit them. The plea was
accepted and she was told to call her parents along with whom she could go.
Accordingly, she informed her parents and on the given date and time they came to take
their daughter. As when they were about to leave, her mother-in-law surprised everyone
when she ordered her daughter-in-law to leave her baby behind and go alone. This was a
big shock for everyone and embarrassing situation for her. Everyone present at the home
tried to convince her mother-in-law but she was not ready to hear a word on this issue.
Finally, Police was called and after its intervention she was able to take her baby along.

Due to this episode she was afraid to come back to her husband’s home. Although
the client tried his best to get his son and wife back but her parents did not allow her to go
with him. After four and a half years of long struggle with no results in hand, the client
finally registered a case at FCC – CBCID.

After taking the case history from the client the counsellor immediately called the
nd
2 party at the FCC to get acquainted with the facts in detail. After analyzing the
disclosures of both the parties the counsellors came to a conclusion that the two families
were engaged in disputes over petty issues. The counsellors held intensive counselling
sessions for both the parties separately and prepared them to come to a common platform
for discussions and clarify each others doubts and misconceptions.

After several sittings and rigorous counselling, everyone realized their mistakes
and finally agreed upon to allow the couple to live on their own with no interference from
either side.

Case No. 7

A client aged 29 years registered a case with FCC against her husband. She stated
that immediately after the marriage she was shocked to knew some facts about her
husband, that he was only 6th standard pass whereas it was understood that he had
completed his class twelve, further the family was told that he had his own General
Merchant Shop but the actual fact was that he was working in his father’s shop. He was
totally dependent on his father and he had no say in the family. Although her mother-in-
law and sister-in-law were very cooperative but her father-in-law was a very different
person.

One morning when her husband was out and her mother-in-law was busy with
prayers her father-in-law tried to sexually abuse her but somehow she managed to escape.
Her father-in-law told her that if she wanted to live in his house, she had to accept
whatever he asked to do. She told this incident to her husband but since he was fully
controlled by his father he did not take heed. Then she told this incident to her mother-in-
law. Since she was a very sensitive person she immediately called the client’s father to
take her back home, with her 5 year old son.

The FCC called her husband along with his family and discussed the case in
length. It was found that her husband was not able to take care of her and he was also
incapable to earn money and protect her interests. After many sittings and consultations
with the counsellor the client decided to opt for a divorce.
She filed a case in court and got divorce from her husband. She also got all her
money and other articles from her in-laws.

Case No. 8

A client aged 25 years was married to a young boy in the same town. Her parents
tried their level best to arrange a good marriage and were happy that they had secured their
daughter’s future after solemnizing her marriage. Her dreams of a happy and contented
married life were shattered when after 3 – 4 months, the client’s in-laws started demanding
more from her parents. They asked her to bring some money from her parents so that her
husband could establish a general store. She was reluctant for this as she knew that her
parents had done whatever was possible for them.

Soon their demands and harassment became louder and bolder. Her in-laws started
teasing and abusing her and at times physically tortured her too. She always tried to cover
up these happenings as she was worried about her parents that as soon as they would know
her situation they would get disturbed. She also believed that the situation would normalize
in due course of time and she started all efforts to adjust. But she was wrong and the
situation went bad to worse. As the days passed, her in-laws started harassing her more and
nobody talked to her at home.

Things were getting worse for her day by day. After a few months she came to her
parent’s house to stay. But she never told anything to them, but during her stay at parent’s
house she tried to contact her in-laws on phone a number of times but they always ignored
her and never responded. Months passed by but nobody came to take her back, with the
result she slipped into a cycle of severe depression.
 When her parents put pressure on her to disclose the facts then she revealed the
entire story and the facts. After getting acquainted with the facts and the plight of their
daughter they registered a case with FCC. The counsellor at FCC tried to call the second
party but they never responded. Then with the help of FCC the case was registered in
Women cell at a Police station. The client’s in-laws were arrested under the Dowry
Prohibition Act but since they were resourceful and were soon got out of the jail.

At the other end the counsellors of FCC played a very effective role in pulling client
out of deep depression. She got divorced from her husband. The FCC also exerted pressure
and helped her in retrieving her belongings and gifts which she had been given in marriage.
Further FCC facilitated her to get job as Anganwadi worker and a part time computer
operator in the town. There after she has been living life afresh.

Case No. 9

The client was married, her husband was working as a manager in a company and
most of the time he was on tour. Since the client used to be alone in the house for days
when her husband was on tour. One of her husband’s cousins often came to their home.
Slowly she developed an intimate relations with her husband’s cousin. As soon as her
husband was on tour she would call his cousin and spend time with him.

One day her husband came back from his tour without informing her and caught
his cousin in the house in an objectionable situation. He was shocked to see this and he
beat her black and blue. After this incident, she filed a case against her husband at FCC
of domestic violence. The counsellor called her husband for discussion. When he
revealed the incident to the counsellor she realized that this was a case of an extra marital
affairs rather than that of a domestic violence as was reported by the client. Later the
counsellors of the FCC started taking sessions with both the parties separately. The
client’s husband was very upset as he felt that his wife had cheated him and betrayed his
trust. He told the counsellor that he did not want to live with his wife. The counsellor
tried to reason out with the couple and made them realize the adverse affects of
separation/divorce.

The counsellor also took separate sessions with the client and made her realize as
to how this irresponsible behaviour would ruin her life. After a few counselling sessions,
the client realized that she had made a big mistake, and was ashamed of herself and the
repercussions it would have on their children’s future if her husband decided to divorce
her.

After few sessions they both realized their mistakes and client promised not to
breach the trust of her husband and her husband too agreed to forgive her simply for the
sake of their children’s future. Due to this incidence the warmth in their relations had
reduced to great extent but they were still united and started their life afresh.
 Case No. 10

A client aged 18 years was married to a boy in a nearby village. The boy was
totally dependent on farming and had no other means of income. When the client faced
financial hardships she applied for “Asha Bahu” and she got the job. She was happy to
help the women in her village and earn some money as well. Her husband on the other
hand was not doing any job and whenever he got money from sale of agricultural produce
he used the money for liquor daily and ate outside and never gave any money to his wife.
As a result of this the financial situation of the family began to deteriorate.

Further, her husband doubted her character whenever she was out to work with the
people in the village. Due to her job’s demand she sometimes visited families in the
evening or any odd time. This led to frequent quarrels between wife and husband,
sometimes he even physical assault her. He always criticized his wife in front of her co-
workers and his friends and relatives regarding her job timings and was abusive. One day
after consuming liquor he assaulted the client and dragged her and children out of his
house. She found herself alone and helpless and one of her co-workers took her over to
FCC for help.
There she registered a case of domestic violence with the FCC. The counsellor
called her husband and discussed the case at length. She took many sessions with him and
warned that if he did not mend his ways and neglected his wife and children then he
would be in trouble. After many lengthy counselling sessions and lot of motivation her
husband got convinced and finally decided to take his wife and children back home. This
way the FCC played a proactive role in saving the family from a split.

Case No. 11

A woman was harassed for ‘dowry’ soon after her marriage. Her in-laws started
demanding money to set up a shop for their son. When their demands were not fulfilled
then the whole family started torturing her mentally as well as physically. The situation
became worse when they forced her to do each and every household work during her
pregnancy. Her husband started pressurizing her by saying that he will go for another
marriage, if she did not bring the demanded money. Later, her in-laws including her
husband sent her forcefully back to her parent’s house.

After coming back to her house she told the whole story to her parents then they
tried to convince her in-laws but they refused to budge and did not consider anything less
than the demanded money. Finally the client’s father lodged an FIR against her in-laws
but to their shock the Police was indifferent and favoured her in-laws family. In the mean
time they came to know about FCC after going through an advertisement published in the
helpline column of the newspaper. The FCC took up the case and summoned the second
party and had intensive counselling sessions for the client’s in-laws and husband. The
counsellors explained to the family the repercussions if they were booked under Dowry
Prohibition Act. After regular follow ups of the case the FCC succeeded in motivating the
in-laws and husband to recall the client into their family and gave opportunity to the
client and her husband to start their life a fresh.
Chapter VII

Conclusions and Recommendations

The present chapter attempts to summarize the broad conclusions which have
emerged in the study. Based on these conclusions, the chapter also presents
recommendations, which are based on the intensive study of 11 Family Counselling
Centres being run by voluntary organizations across six states of Bihar, Haryana,
Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Although the sample of
the study was small but the intensive coverage of FCCs makes it all the more important.
It is hoped that the conclusions and recommendations of the study will be of relevance
for the effective implementation of the FCC scheme.

The Scheme

The scheme of Family Counselling Centre (FCC) was initiated by Government of

India in 1983, now it is looked after by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
The Central Social Welfare Board is implementing the scheme through voluntary
organizations all across the country. At present there are over 800 FCCs operational all
over the country. Initially the Central Social Welfare Board spearheaded the campaign
for counselling centres by setting up voluntary action bureaus, which subsequently took
the shape of Family Counselling Centres. The objectives of the FCC are to provide
preventive and rehabilitative services to women and families who are victims of atrocities
and family maladjustments through crisis intervention and systematic counselling,
besides creating awareness and mobilizing public opinion on social issues affecting status
of women.

In a country where in every six hours a young married women is burned alive,
beaten to death or driven to commit suicide, 37 per cent married women in the country
are victims of physical or sexual abuse by their husbands coupled with insensitive
judiciary and Police the usefulness or relevance of the scheme of FCC is a foregone
conclusion. Further, the responses of innumerable clients who felt after coming to FCC
that they came to a ‘right place’ is reason enough to say that the services provided at FCC
are invaluable. The clients not only got psychological support, legal advice, self reliance
but also the FCCs exerted pressure on the Police to register cases where the victims were
denied their rights. At places FCCs with the help of media opened up otherwise closed
criminal cases to provide support to victims of dowry and domestic violence. The above
mentioned facts prove that the scheme is no doubt very useful in providing support to
victims of domestic violence and offering a level playing ground to aggrieved parties to
settle their disputes to save families from breaking up. There were a number of families
which were at logger heads on flimsy grounds and had snapped communication were
brought to a common platform to sort out difference by FCCs.
FCCs in Police Headquarters and Jail Premises

The study revealed that not only the regular FCCs but also those located in Police
headquarters and jail premises were rendering services very effectively. Infact, the
responses for the FCCs located in police headquarter were observed to be very prompt as
summoning of 2nd party for consultations could be done with ease as the Police tag was
attached with it. It was also found that the FCCs run in women jail premises were very
useful as support provided by counsellors to the inmates cannot be underestimated. It was
found that as soon as the women prisoners entered the jail they were completely cut off
from their near and dear ones and as the days passed in the jail they got into the cycle of
depression and the same was expressed in the form of aggression. Here the counsellors
were found to be very effective in bridging the gap between women prisoners and their
families by providing necessary support in the form of counselling, legal aid, arranging
meeting with family members particularly children for whom they were often worried
about. These inputs may look very trivial for outside world but are invaluable to the
female inmates and mean a great deal to them.

Physical Infrastructure

As regards the condition of buildings where the FCCs were housed, it was
observed that almost all the buildings were ‘fairly good’ as well as some building were
‘very good and well maintained’ with adequate ventilation and good lighting facilities
with pacca construction. All the surveyed FCCs had sign boards at appropriate places,
which helped in locating them with ease. As far as the availability of the
furniture/furnishings in the FCCs is concerned, majority of the FCCs were having chairs,
tables, almirahs, fans, type writer, computers, telephone, fax, e-mail, books on
counselling and books related to law. Very few FCCs were deprived of modern facilities
like computer, e-mail, fax and library.

It was also observed that almost fifty per cent of the FCCs had earmarked two
rooms for work related to FCC as one room was used for administrative purpose of the
FCCs with tables and chairs and the second one was utilized for counselling.

The counsellors at the FCCs

It was revealed that majority 55 per cent of the organizations were running FCCs
between 6 – 15 years followed by 27 per cent organizations which were running these for
more than 15 years. It shows that all the sample FCCs had very rich experience of
handling cases of marital disputes.
 Almost all the FCCs were having two counsellors and all the counsellors of the
surveyed FCCs were qualified as per the norms set by Central Social Welfare Board. i.e.
they were holding Masters Degree either in Psychology or in Social Work/Sociology.

About three fourth of the sample heads of organizations said that their counsellors
were not having any experience regarding counselling at the time of joining while the rest
had some experience. It was interesting to note that most of the counsellors had attended
orientation training on counselling organized by Central Social Welfare Board.

As regards the percentage of solved cases at the FCC the organizational heads
were of the view that 80 per cent cases were solved by them every year. On an average
every FCC received around 25 – 30 cases per year and it was observed that reporting of
cases at FCC largely depended on the kind of ground work carried out by the
organization in terms of advocacy. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the
organizations were conducting advocacy programmes for FCC through Mohalla meetings
(monthly), awareness camps, advertisement in newspapers, and local cable T.V.,
distributing posters and pamphlets etc.

The study has pointed out that majority of the cases registered with the FCC
received counselling services, referrals, free legal aid etc. Further, the FCCs were able to
facilitate in settling down family disputes and helped in reintegration of families which
were otherwise on the verge of collapse. The cases given in chapter 5 and 6 are the
testimony to the above.

Advocacy

It is quite disappointing that though of late the media has been proactive and a
number of safeguards are in place to protect women yet a majority of the interviewed
clients hardly had any knowledge of laws and its provisions. To add insult to injury, in
rural areas significant women believed rather made to believe that wife beating was
justified. In this context it is suggested that the awareness generation programmes of FCC
should address these issues rigorously and some financial provisions have to be made in
the schematic budget for organizing these.

Services of Lawyer

It was also observed that in most of the cases both in regular FCCs as well as
FCCs in jail premises the clients were so poor that they could hardly afford to pay for
their lawyers. The situation of some inmates in jails was pathetic as on one hand there
was rampant illiteracy among them and on the other their families disowned them
completely due to stigma. There was hardly anybody to take up their cause. Infact, in
such cases the counsellors took up some of the very deserving cases through free legal
aid or by requesting local lawyers to take up these cases free of cost. But this luxury
could not be availed to all the deserving inmates. In this context it is recommended that
the schematic budget should have a budgetary provision for services of a lawyer under
which a minimum fee could be paid for taking up cases in the court for bail etc.

Release of Grant

Majority of the NGO heads expressed difficulties on account of late release of

grants for project implementation. It was observed that a number of organizations had to
wait at the minimum of six months from the beginning of the financial year to receive
their first installment of the grant. To add to their woes even issuance of sanctioned letter
for continuation of the FCC was also considerably delayed in almost all cases. It is
therefore, recommended that utmost attention be paid to timely release of grants as also
requisite sanction for continuation of FCCs preferably between April and May (beginning
of financial year), so that there was no break in rendering services at the FCCs. Further,
this kind of arrangement would also help in arresting massive turnover of trained and
experienced counsellors. It may be mentioned that in majority of the FCCs surveyed, the
honorarium to counsellors was being paid once in six months and this was the main
factor which played a significant role for the heavy turnover of staff at the FCCs.

Budgetary Provisions

A lot of discontentment was seen among NGO heads over low budgetary
provisions of the scheme. Infact, almost all the heads reiterated that a grant of
Rs.1,92,000/- per FCC is too meagre to run it effectively. They mentioned that the
contingency amount is Rs.60,000/- which covers expenses like; honorarium to clerk or
any office staff/ peon/sweeper, rent for the building, electricity, stationery, telephone,
postage, Travelling Allowance to counsellors for making home visits, at times nominal
fee to lawyer etc. They questioned, whether all these expenditures could be met from the
paltry amount earmarked as contingency. In this regard they pleaded for an immediate
increase in overall budgetary provisions of the scheme. Notably this kind of problem is
seen in many of the schemes as when these were launched the provisions appeared to be
perfect, however in course time they lose the value due to ever increasing price index
perhaps. In this context, it is recommended that there should be a mechanism of review of
budgetary provisions every two years which could help in updating various budgetary
provisions with the price index.

Honorarium to Counsellors

A lot of discontentment was also seen among the counsellors working with FCCs
over the amount of honorarium paid to them as it did not match up with their
qualifications. It may be mentioned that the Central Social Welfare Board has prescribed
Masters Degree in Social Work and Psychology for the post of counsellors in FCCs,
which is no doubt a basic and essential educational qualification for technical job of
counselling. However, the honorarium prescribed for the post of counsellor i.e.
Rs.7,000/- (A class city) and Rs.5,500/- (B class city) per month is no doubt paltry by any
standard. In this context, it is recommended that an immediate review may be done to
increase the honorarium for counsellors, which should commensurate with their
qualifications and the price index. Further, it is suggested that the amount of honorarium
to counsellors should be based on number of years of experience (service in the FCC),
which may be divided into slab of 5 years,10 years,15 years and so on. This would help
in giving weightage to senior counsellors.

Almost all the counsellors had suggested that categorization of honorarium on the
basis of city as being done presently should be done away with, rather the slab of
honorarium may be linked with experience and educational qualifications. They further
suggested that the Central Social Welfare Board should create some provision for social
security measures for the welfare of the counsellors of FCC in the form of insurance,
provident fund etc.

Linkages and Resource Mapping

The FCCs are required to work in close collaboration with the local
administration, Police, free legal aid cells, medical and psychiatric institutions, vocational
training centres, short stay homes etc. However, the study revealed that some of the
surveyed FCCs have not developed suitable linkages with the above institutions. It is
therefore recommended that efforts should be made by the FCCs to strengthen these
linkages which will help the clients visiting the FCCs to take maximum possible help.
Further, it is suggested that efforts should also be made to map the resources available in
the districts where FCCs are operating. This resource directory would help to refer the
clients to appropriate places for availing services. There is also a need to linking up FCCs
with the protection of women from domestic violence Act (PWDVA).

Capacity Building of Counsellors

It was observed that barring a few counsellors, a majority of them had knowledge
gap on counselling skills, laws related to women, personal laws related to different
religious communities etc. It is therefore, recommended that the concerned State Social
Welfare Boards make suitable arrangements for regular orientation/ refresher training for
the counsellors on the subjects mentioned. Further, it is suggested that there should also
be Annual Meets or Symposia for the counsellors at national level where they could share
their cases, best practices and views and learn from sharing of experiences of one
another.

The study revealed that almost all the FCCs surveyed were devoid of publicity or
IEC material on issues related to women and legal safe guards. Therefore, there is a need
to develop subject specific IEC materials for advocacy. Besides, it is further suggested
that the Central Social Welfare Board may if deemed fit could publish the successful case
studies of solved cases as there were a variety of cases handled by different FCCs. This
sharing of information would not only help the counsellors but also all the stake holders
working on women issues.

Although the findings are based on a small sample but it gives a fairly good
understanding on the functioning of FCCs in general, type of cases reported, technical
manpower available with these institutions, advocacy work carried out, kind of problems
being faced by the councellors and the NGO heads in implementation of the scheme and
it identifies areas which needed strengthening for the effective organization of services at
the FCCs. Finally, there is a lot of scope of further research in the area after all the
subject deals with family, which is a backbone of any society.
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