An answer to disputes

Samarpita Banerjee : Sun Mar 25 2012

Three days after her marriage, 22-year-old Swati Mane felt trapped—her husband Amar Mane came home and beat her that day. That was the first blow to their marriage, a match that their parents had arranged. She put up with the beatings till someone told her about advocate Varsha Deshpande, a Satara-based advocate and social activist.

On Monday, she turned up with her mother at the office of the Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal, filled up a form and joined the 50-odd women who sat on an orange tarpaulin sheet, facing Deshpande and her team. As she waited for her name to be called out, Mane said, “Initially, I didn’t know why my in-laws had suddenly become hostile. Later they told me they weren’t happy with the amount of jewellery I had got. One of my friends knew advocate Deshpande in Satara and that’s how I’m here. I hope to get some justice,” says Mane, who now lives with her parents, a year after her marriage.

Mane and the other women are at a weekly counselling session run by Deshpande, where she provides free legal help to people who come with problems relating to their land and family. For the work that she does under the banner of the Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal, Deshpande gets technical support from the Maharashtra legal services authority. “What we are trying to do here is legal activism. We provide counselling as well as legal services to anyone who is in need,” she says.

The way things work at the weekly meetings is simple: people register their names and their problems, Deshpande and her team of 25 “sisters” listen to the cases and send applications to both the parties to appear at the centre. They listen to both the sides and most of the problems get sorted out here, without the parties having to go to court.

Deshpande is a firebrand activist, having taken up causes for everyone from sugarcane farmers to those affected in a communal strife in Wai, Maharashtra, some years ago. She was recently in news for her sting operations on doctors who carried out illegal sex determination tests. She also runs a shelter for women.

The idea of setting up a legal aid centre in Satara came to her when she was working with deserted women. “I had begun working with women way back in 1992. During our work, we got to know that there were a lot of other problems facing society. Today, we offer our services to not just women, but anyone who comes seeking our help,” says Deshpande.

“People find it easier to come here because we try to solve the cases in about two months. Be it a misunderstanding between husband and wife or a land dispute, we send applications to both the parties and ask them to come here. The number of people coming to us has increased in the last few years. Last year, we had a total of 276 cases. Every week, we almost get 15-20 new cases. We act like catalysts by building pressure on the system. But there are times when we find people inside the system guilty. That’s when we come together, take out processions and ensure that the people being accused at least respond to our applications,” says Deshpande.

Shyam Deshpande, chief executive officer, Zilla Parishad, lauded Deshpande for her efforts. “Not only has Deshpande been working relentlessly to bring down female foeticide, she has been trying to spread awareness among citizens about the importance of saving the girl child. Also, her sessions have helped in solving many cases, thus helping people save both time and money. We need more activists like her in our country today,” he says.

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