Reshma is in abaya standing with Radha in extreme right along with their children and another Mahila Panchayat member.
Long harmed by patriarchal, casteist norms within the legal system, women in India are implementing women-centered forms of grassroots justice.
At 2 p.m. every Wednesday, about 15 to 20 women who form a Mahila Panchayat, or Women’s Council, gather in a modest, dimly lit room in the Jehangirpuri area of the Indian capital city New Delhi, to hear cases of gender-based violence (GBV). Distressed women—victims of domestic violence, bigamy, alcoholism, etc.—throng the room in search of the sort of justice they wouldn’t necessarily get from law-enforcement agencies. The Mahila Panchayat of Jahangirpuri was set up in 1994; for over 30 years it has not only helped marginalized, working-class women speak up against violence but also exalted them to leadership positions in the council.
Ranjana is a vegetable vendor who was deceived into a live-in relationship by her partner who told her in 2019 that he would marry her soon after his divorce was finalized. Five years later, Ranjana has a 2-year-old son, and marriage is nowhere in sight. The partner abandoned her just like he did to three other women he’d had children with—and initially kept Ranjana in the dark about the other relationships. She says he has separated from (but not divorced) one of the women whom he has legally married.
“Someone told me about the Mahila Panchayat, and I came here with my plea that he come back to me, marry me, and help me financially maintain my child. I don’t have anyone I can go back to so I registered my case here,” she says.
“When the Mahila Panchayat talked to my husband and pressured him, he returned home after 13 days,” says Ranjana, who refers to her partner as her husband although they are not legally married. “He’s been home since and gives me spending money also.” Although her “husband” might never marry her, the fact that he has returned and provides for her and their child gives Ranjana some relief.
Ranjana feels a deep sense of support from the women of the Mahila Panchayat. In contrast, her experience reporting her complaint at the local police station felt scary, and she says that she “hates” the institution.
“When I was telling them about my husband, the lady constable slapped me and questioned the way I was talking about him,” the 27-year-old recalls tearfully.
Another woman named Reshma, a mother of three, also came to the Mahila Panchayat to discuss her case of acute domestic violence during her 10-year marriage. “He first hit me when my eldest daughter was only 6 days old and our marriage was a year in. [The reason for the violence was] because I’d put extra salt in the khichdi. The violence increased gradually over the last four years.” As she shows the scars on her body, she adds, “He creates such a fuss in giving me a basic allowance for me and my children.”
Reshma was convinced to seek help at the Mahila Panchayat by a friend who resolved her case of domestic violence in three hearings. “I was severely distressed when Radha saw the scars on my arms and asked me to come for the sunwai [hearing]. I consulted my family, who also encouraged me, and I decided to register my complaint here,” she says. Reshma shares that she did not consider going to the police because she doesn’t want to destroy her family by getting into a legal dispute.
Radha, Reshma’s friend, has a much happier married life now. “My husband used to beat me after alcohol abuse and refrained from paying me an allowance, which is why I had to take up the work of house cleaning and earn [money] for my children.” She explains that after she complained to the women of Mahila Panchayat, they summoned her husband and talked to him. “He has now quit alcohol, stopped hitting me, and also gives me a monthly allowance. He has now enabled me to quit work too,” says Radha with a big smile. She continues to come to Panchayat meetings because here she gets to learn about other women and gains knowledge on her rights too. Additionally, the women of the council get updates on how her marriage is going.
Aside from Jahangirpuri, there are five other Mahila Panchayat councils run by Action India, a nonprofit organization that works for women’s empowerment in India. Action India devised the model of a Mahila Panchayat in 1994 when the leadership of the NGO was struck by the vast issue of domestic violence in the neighborhoods of the capital’s slums. Per Action India, there are currently active women’s councils in Seemapuri, Sunder Nagri, Dharampura, Jahangirpuri, Welcome (Junta Mazdoor Colony), and Dakshinpuri areas. Of these, Sunder Nagri, Seemapuri, Dakshinpuri, and Jahangirpuri Mahila Panchayats are the oldest.
Action India’s co-chairperson, Gyanwati, has had an illustrious career spanning four decades working on women’s rights. She recalls the journey of the women’s councils: “We piloted with building groups of five women each from within the communities for the Mahila Panchayat because there was no space for women to go with their marital conflicts in the city.” She adds, “The so-called Panchayats were all led by men where women had no agency.”
Significantly, all the areas where Mahila Panchayats are active are inhabited by large migrant populations from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and other parts of the Hindi-speaking belt of the country. Most of the women are from different marginalized religious, caste, and class sects of society, states Gyanwati. As the Mahila Panchayats have progressed, they now have about 25 women in each hierarchy-free council, selected from within the local area based on their leadership abilities, articulation of domestic violence matters, and basic education for writing “First Information Reports” for police, and other documents.
Gyanwati explains that the Mahila Panchayat meetings are carried out meticulously, with careful record keeping of all cases that are registered with them. “Every Wednesday, we take about two cases per council and sometimes on other days of the week as well, as per the availability of the case victim and her husband. During the meeting, we listen to both parties and then make a fair decision agreed upon by both parties.” She points out that the process is a fair one, saying, “We don’t necessarily side with women in all cases.”
Manorama Jha, a member of the Jahangirpuri Mahila Panchayat since 2014, moved to Delhi from Bihar’s Madhubani district in 2006 after she got married. She discovered the council through a friend who is also a member. Since joining the Panchayat, she has felt a sense of comfort in the company of women who discuss their personal matters without judgment or rebuke. “I have learned a great deal about women’s rights. Before, I didn’t know that household chores are also regarded as work in society. But now I know, and it makes me feel valued,” says Manorama.
She has also helped resolve several conflicts of women and regularly attends council meetings. “We attend legal workshops and other rights-based sessions that help us build our understanding of GBV and patriarchal nuances of society,” says Manorama, adding that she has also visited the police station and courts in cases that require a law-based approach.
On whether her family supports her social justice activities, Manorama shakes her head with a smile, “I lie to them when I come for the meetings or when I have to go to the police station. I tell them about it when I come back. They fear that I’ll become too forward if I get to know more about my rights, but that hasn’t stopped me in the last decade.”
While Action India ushered in the wave of Mahila Panchayats in the mid-1990s, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), a government initiative, officially adopted the concept in 2002 in collaboration with several privately run NGOs. Currently, DCW is running 64 Mahila Panchayats across the city with 53 NGOs. DCW Member Firdos Khan explains that the commission has 400 Mahila Panchayat members who are in turn connected to 400,000 women from marginalized sections of the city.
“We routinely conduct sessions with Delhi State Legal Services Authority to empower these women in their understanding of legal rights to address GBV. We also went a step beyond GBV cases to ensure their children get [school] admissions, older women get pensions [and have access to] awareness programs … [that help them get] their documents in place to be able to access benefits,” says Firdos. She adds that it’s not just about filing a case with the police and initiating a “mountain of litigation,” but also how to prevent injustices in the first place.
Recently, to equip the Mahila Panchayat coordinators with sensitivity skills to deal with women’s mental health issues, DCW organized a workshop in collaboration with Mariwala Health Initiative, a funding agency for innovative mental health initiatives. After one such workshop ended, Mahila Panchayat coordinators from different NGOs shared how deeply women’s mental health is intertwined with their dignity and social standing in society.
Parvati, who works with Sofia Educational and Welfare Society and is a Mahila Panchayat coordinator since 2013 in Mustafabad area, explains that a Mahila Panchayat resolves cases by first listening to women and trying to understand their needs. “Most cases happen [because] homebound women need money to run their houses and educate their children. When the husband loses the money in gambling and alcohol, it becomes a problem for the wife. In such cases, we counsel women and use social pressure on the husband to come to the right path,” says Parvati.
Several Mahila Panchayat members and coordinators agreed that there are times when men refuse to budge or might be agreeable in front of the council but later will deny all agreements. In such situations, the Mahila Panchayats keep track of the cases, sometimes for months on end, to ensure the woman has won a just resolution.
Another NGO called Centre for Equity and Inclusion (CEQUIN) has run Mahila Panchayats since 2010 in the Jamia Nagar clusters in South Delhi and also in some areas of other states such as Rajasthan and Haryana.
Jamia Nagar, a Muslim-dominated area, has a significantly large portion of women with low levels of basic literacy and education. Growing up in conservative environments, many have not ventured out of their homes, but after CEQUIN worked with them for decades to help them explore the outside world, they now know that in cases of violence, they have a Mahila Panchayat to fall back on.
When Mumtaz, a resident of Jamia Nagar, completed eighth grade, her father stopped her education and married her off as soon as she turned 18. Mumtaz was familiar with domestic violence, having witnessed her father beat up her mother for the smallest of mistakes. So when her own husband began assaulting her, she endured it for a long time.
“My father came to see me one day and was filled with guilt for my mother, whom he used to beat up. He kept asking for forgiveness from her until the day he died,” shares Mumtaz. She recalls that because she was relatively sheltered, she initially did not know whom to turn to for help. But then she remembered taking a makeup class at CEQUIN before she got married. “I reached out to them, and they directed me to the Mahila Panchayat,” she recounts. “My husband would beat me after getting drunk. We had a full house with his brothers and their wives, but none would rescue me,” she says.
After a few hearings with the Mahila Panchayat, Mumtaz’s husband not only stopped physically abusing her but moved the family into a new house and enrolled her in an international makeup course. Now Mumtaz works as a beautician in Jamia Nagar and has more than 10K Instagram followers.
CEQUIN co-founder Lora Prabhu defines Mahila Panchayats as “women’s collective leadership,” saying, “The most important thing for women in Mahila Panchayats, particularly in the urban context, is that social dynamics can range widely across different castes, religions, and communities, and yet they come together for the greater good.”
Naseem Khan, manager of implementation and monitoring at CEQUIN, has had a lot of experience working with Mahila Panchayats, first with Action India and now with CEQUIN. She states the importance of Mahila Panchayats as self-sustaining and independent. “We focus our training sessions on developing leadership among the girls and women in our women’s councils. Secondly, we prioritize community participation and contribution where women members open their own homes for the hearings on a rotation basis,” says Khan. She points out that in contrast to the Mahila Panchayats run by CEQUIN, other NGOs rent spaces and give coordinators an honorarium to run the program. This makes them dependent on the organizations.
The majority of the thousands of cases that Mahila Panchayats tackle each year are beyond the scope of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in Delhi. The NCRB reported 14,247 crimes against women in Delhi in 2022—the highest across all metropolitan cities in India—of which 4,901 cases center on abuse by husbands or relatives. Of these, only three cases were reported under the Protection of Women From Domestic Violence Act.
Mahila Panchayats offer a good chance at fair resolutions of domestic violence, bigamy, alcohol abuse, dowry, and other gender-related crimes in India, and specifically in the nation’s capital. More importantly, such councils are helping women to speak up and reframe their ideas of justice.
