Alert neighbours, trained volunteers: Cyberabad’s silent warriors against domestic violence

Margadarshak volunteers during the refresher training visit the Cyberabad cybercrime cell.

A request for a bowl of curd from a neighbour proved to be the saviour for a woman who was subjected to domestic abuse and violence by her partner at their residence in Gachibowli area of Hyderabad. A strategic knock on the door shattered the chaos, silencing the echoes of a man’s rage—the shouts, the crashing of broken objects—vanished in an instant.

Suddenly, the man was aware that their dispute was being noticed by the neighbours, said an alert resident, who noticed the pattern of abuse over a few weeks. Enrolled as a volunteer in the Margadarshak programme, the woman shared her experience at the refresher training at the Cyberabad commissionerate earlier this week.

In another case, a young woman from Karimnagar, who joined as a trainee at an MNC, was saved by the last minute intervention by a Sanghamitra volunteer. “She decided to end her life after being threatened by her boyfriend/colleague about posting her morphed and explicit images online following a decision to call off the relationship,” said the volunteer. After being rescued and counselled, a complaint was filed with the Cyberabad She Teams and the man was arrested in an elaborate decoy operation.

These are among the several cases that have been addressed by the Margadarshak and Sanghamitra programmes launched by the Cyberabad police in collaboration with the Society for Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC). The initiative aims to train and equip individuals with the skills necessary to provide socio-legal support to victims of domestic, online, and sexual abuse and is particularly important amid rising cases of crimes against women.

“We started off by conducting awareness sessions in companies across the commissionerate, but we realised women faced multiple issues, including eve teasing, domestic abuse and others, which were beyond the employers’ purview,” explained Vishnupriya Saksena, the former joint secretary and women’s forum leader, SCSC, adding that women were also very apprehensive about reaching out for help.

Each year, at least 4-5 nominees from various organisations in the IT hub are equipped to act as a bridge to the resources, including police, legal and counselling. The training that spans over six weekends includes physical visits to police stations, cyber cells and Bharosa Centres to lodge a complaint, reaching out to She Teams and the familiarisation with investigation procedures.

Volunteers are trained by legal professionals, law enforcement officers and psychological counsellors, who provide insights into handling sensitive cases. So far, 809 volunteers from 212 organisations including Infosys, TCS, Wells Fargo, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, HSBC and Franklin Templeton have been trained in 13 batches.

During COVID-19 pandemic, when life completely moved into homes, there was a spike in domestic abuse and violence cases. This was the time when the Sanghamitra programme was launched to train residents of gated communities to help victims. Under this programme, 221 volunteers from 174 gated communities, including Prestige High Fields, Aparna Heights and BHEL, were trained in three batches.