How Rasika Sundaram’s NGO is working towards addressing and preventing sexual and gender-based violence

In 2022, Rasika Sundaram was assaulted by a close friend, which shook her entire world and pushed her into a very dark place. She slipped into depression, became anxious and didn’t know how to come out of it.

She decided to seek help, but a string of experiences with mental health experts left her feeling dejected. 

“The incident I faced could be categorised under physical and sexual violence. Unfortunately, I found it difficult to get a good therapist. When I did find one, they suggested a psychiatrist because they felt I needed medication for my mental health,” she tells SocialStory.

For Sundaram, finding a psychiatrist turned out to be the biggest challenge because they were not trauma-informed or survivor-empathetic.

“I was shamed by many of them. Also, therapists turned out to be very expensive. Finally, I found a good psychiatrist  who recommended the right medication and an informed therapist who helped me,” she adds.

Another hurdle was finding a good lawyer. Sundaram says that despite an extensive search, she never found one that said they would support her fully, and so she gave up on filing a case against her abuser. 

Dealing with these experiences and emotions led her to start the Neeti Project, which was later registered as the Imaara Survivor Support Foundation in 2023, an NGO working towards preventing and ultimately ending sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in the Indian context. 

It prioritises survivor-oriented remedial approaches and also highlights the significance of bystander intervention and support. 

Sundaram was born in Canada, and moved back to India with her family when she was eight years old because her parents wanted their daughters to grow up amidst Indian culture and engage in various art forms. She studied for a degree in Chennai and also did a year of her Honours degree in York University, Toronto. 

She believes the identity shift she experienced as a result made her people-oriented, leading her to internships in human rights, specifically centred around refugee rights, migrant rights and gender-based violence. She also did a couple of fellowships and worked on a gender security project.

Preventing gender-based violence

Sundaram encapsulates Imaara’s mission in one line–preventing gender-based violence in society. 

She explains, “We support survivors in their post-violence journey. Our prevention strategies involve going out into communities and teaching various populations what gender based violence is, that it exists, raising awareness and teaching people why and how survivors can be supported. We also teach bystander intervention to help someone going through a volatile, hostile, abusive situation.”

Imaara is also curating a resource hub of one-stop centers for legal, medical support and police help, initially called the Neeti Project. One of its main objectives is to destigmatize communities through education and training and workshops. 

Sundaram is mentored by Kirthi Jayakumar, a feminist researcher, facilitator GBV, peace educator and mediator and works with volunteers. She also engages in collaborations with other NGOs working in similar projects.Imaara is also working with different stakeholders on consent education with the aim of including it in the curriculum in Tamil Nadu.

“We have impacted close to 700 people so far. We have had survivors from India and from other countries reach out to us. Our role isn't to provide them with therapy or legal help because I'm not a trained lawyer or a certified psychologist. So I brief them saying that we have a database and based on your issue and the kind of support you're seeking, we will send you or share the contact details of the person who can help you,” she says.

Helping survivors with the right interventions

One of the first, and hardest steps for survivors to break out of the cycle of abuse is finding reliable resources to support themselves in their journey.

Sundaram speaks of a survivor from India who reached out after discovering Imaara’s work through an acquaintance. She shared her experience of enduring years of abuse from her mother, including economic abuse, forced abortion, and being forced into multiple marriages for money. Out of her four marriages, three were unregistered, leaving her in a vulnerable position. Seeking to escape and take legal action, she lacked the financial means to do so. 

“After offering her psychological first aid and explaining the services we provide, I connected her with a nearby one stop centre based on her location, a resource that could offer her the comprehensive, pro bono support she urgently needed,” she elaborates.

In another instance, she was contacted by a human trafficking survivor in Africa through the World Pulse platform. She shared her day-to-day ordeal of being targeted by a trafficking ring. A human trafficking survivor who had been in captivity for years previously, she had managed to escape her circumstances with her two children and had sought safety. Since her escape, she became an advocate for other survivors, but her activism brought renewed threats to her and her family. 

“In collaboration with Pallabi Ghosh, founder of the Impact and Dialogue Foundation, we successfully relocated the survivor and her children within a month. However, as refugees, they faced new challenges like securing food, shelter, and financial support in their new country. Through global networking with anti-trafficking advocates and ongoing calls to ensure her safety, we were able to provide essential resources to help stabilise her and her family within a few weeks,” Sundaram says.

She admits it has been extremely difficult to raise funds, as the first three years are a trying time for any NGO. She runs Imaara with small amounts contributed by her family and friends. The plan is to collaborate with established NGOs to achieve more and continue working towards the goal of ending gender-based violence.

“The bigger idea to scale is create an app for survivors where they can access the database with just a click. We are also excited to start creating modules and research on making service providers more trauma-informed and survivor-centric. Once this is done, we can go into communities and teach them to improve on the wonderful work they are already doing,” she concludes.