Workshop for victims of domestic violence
Rohini Salap barely puts any thought while making chapattis for her two children every morning. But over the past eight months the 37-year-old homemaker from a slum pocket in Santacruz poured many painful experiences into a chapatti made of cloth at a workshop to empower women facing domestic violence.
Rohini Salap barely puts any thought while making chapattis for her two children every morning. But over the past eight months the 37-year-old homemaker from a slum pocket in Santacruz poured many painful experiences into a chapatti made of cloth at a workshop to empower women facing domestic violence.

She is among 20 women living in hutments of Dharavi and Santacruz who participated in ‘Dekha Andekha’ a unique project organised by SNEHA (Society for Nutrition Education and Health Action), a non-profit organisation working for women and public health.
On February 25, the initiative funded by University College London will culminate in a public exhibition at Ganesh Vidya Mandir Primary School in Dharavi.
The group has made a model house, based on the hutments in Kumbharwada -Dharavi’s potters’ colony. “Using photographs, textile craft and ceramic art, we have used art as a tool to depict the trauma of domestic violence and health care for women,” said Priya Agrawal, project head.
The project gave them a platform to express their domestic challenges, health concerns and earn a nominal stipend, added Agrawal.
Some of them also fought domestic pressure to become part of the project.
Parveen Ghani, 35, homemaker from Daulat Nagar (Santacruz) refused to eat for three days to convince her husband, who did not approve of her joining the project. “When my husband saw my work he realised that I wasn’t whiling away time, and allowed me to continue,” said Ghani who created her own replica on cloth with cutouts of her two children hanging around her neck.
The model house also comprises a big bed with fabric puppets representing the different phases of a woman’s life. “We have depicted the different chapters of a woman’s life. As a child, she shares the bed with her parents; as a married woman with her husband, as a mother with her child, and as a grandmother with her little grandchildren,” said Susie Vickery, a London-based costume designer, who has trained the tailoring unit in embroidering their lives on cloth.
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