HYDERABAD: To address domestic violence, in recent times, Hyderabad-based NGO, International Arbitration and Mediation Centre (IAMC) and Invisible Scars Foundation (ISF), conducted a training programme for over 30 social workers on family mediation to address domestic violence and family conflict at the IAMC.
The first-of-its-kind initiative in the country, the seven day, 70-hour workshop brought together 32 participants who were selected after a rigorous screening process from across India-Ajmer, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Delhi, Hazaribagh, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nalgonda, Pune, and Warangal.
The cohort included social workers, psychologists, and law enforcement officers who were certified as family mediators. The initiative was taken to address the urgent need for family mediation in the country as a survivor-centric, timely and community-rooted response to domestic violence and family conflict.
Experts said that domestic violence was only seen as intimate partner or in-law violence, missing the broader landscape of family conflict. Moreover, with over 4.91 lakh domestic violence cases pending till July 2022, the survivors, particularly women from marginalised communities, who were often traumatised by delayed and adversarial legal proceedings. Social workers were trained on the three core aspects of trauma-informed mediation, psychology and gender sensitisation, who will further extend the mediation to the communities.
