I am a changemaker in that our ( SWATIs) efforts , over the past ten years has placed Violence on the agenda of several agencies. Many more work on VAW issues, where almost none worked before.
Public rallies and campaigns have brought the issue of VAW into the public domain and initiated a dialogue on male responsibility and changing social attitudes towards the culture of acceptance, hence silence that perpetuates VAW.
SWATI under my leadership has evolved a model of increasing the outreach of our work through alligning with other groups on issues of VAW and Rights based work. This has helped increase the influence of our objectives and impact much beyond our size and has strengthened rights based work through increasing the number of groups actively involved in it.
I love India. It is vibrant, diverse and well yes I love our argumentativeness too. While their are major issues and concerns related to the marginalised and the poor, Indian democracy provides the space to address them
I would like equal opportunity and level playing field for men and women. I would like to see a non violent society . More men who believe in gender equality, are sensitive to the issue of VAW
Poonam Kathuria is the founder director of SWATI (Society for Women's Action and Training Initiative), an organization working women's empowerment and leadership in Gujarat since 1994.
poonam has been in development for over eighteen years and has contributed several articles on experience and research carried out in the area of Violence Against women, male perceptions of VAW and health.
She has in recent times developed and published A Handbook on PWDVA- titled Towards Violence Free Homes-A users guide on PWDVA, 2005.
Under her leadership SWATI has pioneered the work with womens Nyaya Samitis which are today well recognized platforms dealing with womens issues of violence and exploitation in the home and outside it.
Poonam Specializes in organization development – capacity, perspective building trainings in NGOs, women’s groups; gender related issues – health, gender based violence. She advocates at state and national levels for effective implementation of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005
