Leadership
Disrupting the Cycle of Gender-Based Violence in Rural India
Mathangi Swaminathan, Founder of Parity Lab, shares how to unlock the funding needed to shift systemic violence
August 23, 2023
Case Study
THE UNJUST JOURNEY TOWARDS JUSTICE FOR INDIA'S DENOTIFIED NOMADIC TRIBES
Ranjita Pawar is an Indian woman from the Denotified Nomadic Tribes in rural Maharashtra and the Founder of Samarthya, a youth and Indigenous women-led organization. Her tribe has been marginalized and stigmatized since the British colonial era. This legacy of criminalization persists in modern times, as they are disproportionately represented in prisons and face relentless police violence.
From a young age, Ranjita bore witness to the often misdirected violence inflicted on her community. Her organization supports women victims of gender-based violence and also works on engaging men and boys to change gender norms. But seeking justice is an uphill battle riddled with systemic challenges.
Ranjita’s tribe exists at the intersection of three different states in India, creating a labyrinth of bureaucratic complexities. If the crime involves a woman married across state lines, authorities often dismiss her pleas, citing jurisdictional issues.
"You must travel 60 kilometers to the other jurisdiction and figure it out," they say, adding another layer of hardship to an already arduous journey."
Once the woman finally makes her way to that station, she often finds the police officer is unavailable. It can take days before she even makes contact with an officer.
Mathangi explains, “When these interstate jurisdictions come into play, all of a sudden their rights also mean something very different. Often, legal solutions that are available in urban areas do not exist for rural women in these nomadic tribes.”
In this intricate web of injustice, the Denotified Nomadic Tribes face unique challenges. In many cases, there might not be a police presence, leaving their case in the hands of village councils known as panchayats. These councils, predominantly comprised of upper-caste men, wield the power to decide cases of sexual assault and rape.
When all of these systemic challenges — lack of education, literacy, poverty, geography, male dominance — intersect, legal counseling, mental health, and justice look very different from what the outside world would imagine.
Above: Theory of change model for Ranjita's organization, Samarthya.
Within a year of the accelerator fellowship, Parity Lab witnessed a fourfold increase in fundraising efforts for the grassroots organizations. They’ve helped these organizations define structures, identify outcomes, improve relations with funders, and establish second and third lines of leadership.
Parity Lab recognized the need for mental health support among these organizations due to the trauma involved in their work. As a result, they introduced formal mental health concepts, and now two out of three organizations have implemented mental health programs for their communities.
“We have seen this waterfall effect. They get so excited to learn and share what they’re experiencing. That's the effect of empowering leaders of change. If it goes right, it spreads.”
However, one significant challenge is providing legal counseling within a broken system.
“There is this dichotomy of feeling empowered knowing your rights, yet disempowered knowing there’s actually no use in knowing your rights. What do you do with that? This is a question our cohort leaders face day in and day out.”
Parity Lab is exploring ways to offer practical and aspirational legal counseling by leveraging early-stage funding from Acumen Angels to support grassroots leaders addressing this issue.
“Hopefully by building out this ecosystem we can make a difference to the system. But it’s about starting at a very small level, supporting our grassroots leaders who are taking on these practical challenges.”
But similar to the grassroots organizations she supports, Mathangi faces systemic challenges when fundraising for Parity Lab. Limited funding for gender equity and violence initiatives results in gatekeeping and power brokering, making it hard to access resources.
“Even during the peak of COVID-19, when gender-based violence became a shadow pandemic, only 0.0002% of nearly 27 trillion dollars in donor funding went to initiatives addressing it.”
This creates a situation where everyone is competing for a small pool of funding, despite the fact that this issue affects over 1 billion survivors worldwide.
Another challenge in fundraising is the misunderstanding of gender-based violence. It's not just about providing legal aid, but requires addressing complex root causes through systemic change. As Mathangi explains, “Often funders want a linear solution, ‘Do X, and that leads to Y.’ But that rarely happens. This is a big misunderstanding we’re up against.”
Mathangi emphasizes the significance of introductions. Institutions typically require connections for funding applications, limiting access to well-connected individuals and organizations.
“Many of the people who have touched me in the last 2 years have said, ‘Oh, you know, I can make this introduction for you to this network’ — which I'd never heard of, but apparently has a lot of funding opportunities.”
She’s noticed that funding opportunities often remain confined within specific bubbles. Unless you're part of a racial group, affinity group, university group, or you have an affiliation towards that specific issue or group, it’s hard for an opportunity to make its way to a broader audience.
