Strengthening Health Systems Response to Intimate Partner Violence
SAJHA is conceptualised as a learning pilot intended to assess the sustainability and feasibility of scaling up of health systems’ response to women who report injuries caused by physical abuse from their intimate partners/spouses. While during the covid lockdown in 2020, when most of the social support services were closed or partially functioning, SAJHA continued to be completely functional and strategised pathways to spread its reach into the community.
Four out of 10 women face violence from their intimate partner in Bihar (NFHS, 2019-20). Many of them sustain physical injuries and need immediate medical aid. Identifying the need of the health facilities to reach out to women who disclose physical abuse and to provide them adequate support, SAJHA was designed in 2019 and implemented in Vaishali district in Bihar, across the health systems pyramid with the district hospital at the apex.