Profile of a shelter home

WOMEN IN DISTRESS: Neela Dabir; Rawat Publications, Satyam Apartments, Sector 3, Jain Temple Road, Jawahar Nagar, Jaipur- 302004. Rs. 495.

THE AUTHOR, who has taken up one of the oldest shelter homes in Mumbai, Sharaddanand Mahilashram, for her research study, goes into the minute details about its organisation, criteria of selection and profile of its inmates, reasons for their distress and finally their rehabilitation. The author's involvement in the activities of the ashram for a short period combined with additional information she collected about similar organisations has helped her to put things in the proper perspective and offer valuable suggestions for improvement of the shelter home.

The study covers a period of 70 years of the Mahilashram's existence, from 1927 to 1997 during which time it has witnessed the introduction of significant changes based on the changing social context.

The Ashram, a shelter home for Hindu women in distress, was established by some of the prominent leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha in 1927, in response to the prevailing socio-political situation in the country. During the 19th century the social reform movement had created great awakening about the issues relating to the miseries and suffering of Hindu widows and deserted wives. Initiailly the Ashram was more like an extension of the programmes of Hindu Mahasabha and the services offered were complimentary to those of the Shruddhi Sanghatana. But after 1947, the Ashram threw its doors open to non-Hindu women and children as a gesture of national commitment to secularism, and was open to inter-country adoption of its infants and children which came as another significant change.

An analysis of 1722 case records covering a period of 70 years showed the distress situations that led to the institutionalising of women may be grouped into the following broad categories: pregnancy out of wedlock; marital conflict; orphanhood or inability of the parents to look after the child; widowhood and oldage.

As regards the period of stay, which varied with the nature of distress, the Ashram records generally indicated that women stayed for rather a short time. As many as 21 per cent of the women admitted stayed for less than a month. Another 47 per cent left within a year. Only 12 per cent stayed for a period between one and five years and 20 per cent stayed for five years and more.

As many as 47 per cent of the women who sought admission because of marital conflict left within a month of admission, whereas 88 per cent admitted for delivery in the ashram stayed for a period ranging from six months to one year.

About 13 per cent of the elderly women and 47 per cent of the unmarried women stayed for more than five years.

The longest period of stay in case of the elderly has been 21 years and that for the unmarried women has been 41 years.

Some of the important recommendations made by the author are; need to adopt a professional approach in delivery of services and management of cases of women and children; the tremendous potential of the Ashram to raise funds to be exploited further to plan different welfare schemes for the inmates; the policies of admission and discharge to be reviewed periodically; with the spread of HIV/AIDS cases, the Ashram will have to change its policies of admission in order to face this new social problem; adequate facilities to take care of such cases to be developed; after their rehabilitation the Ashram should have a policy and follow up the cases after discharge and allow readmissions if necessary.

A very useful book, which must be read by sociologists, social workers and counsellors.

N. MEERA RAGHAVENDRA RAO

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