Harbinger of women's emancipation

Established in 1987 with only two staff members, Mangalore based Prajna Counselling Centre has come a long way offering help to the women and children in distress. As the Centre is celebrating its silver jubilee on April 17, Akshatha M writes about the past, the present and future plans of  the Centre.

In 1987, when a professor in Social Work Hilda Rayappan along with two of her freinds, Celine Periera and Phyllis M D’Costa opened Prajna Counselling Centre in Mangalore to help the distressed women and children, there were apprehensions in the minds of many about the need for setting up such an institution and over its survival. It is 25 years now since the Centre is established and today Prajna has overcome all the fears and doubts and stands as a Non Governmental Organisation working for the benefit of people in various capacities. Being a ray of hope for women and children in difficult cirucmstances, Prajna has given courage to many to face their unchanging realities with courage.

The life of hundreds of distressed women, children, alcohol addicts has changed, thanks to the benevolent work of Prajna Counselling Centre. The organisation with a humble beginning, today stands like a huge tree giving shelter to many. There are 80 staff working at present and service is offered to the needy under more than 25 different projects.

Projects by Prajna 

In 1987, the Prajna Counselling Centre was opened with one programme for adult that is Therapeutic Counselling Centre to assist women with emotional, psychological and psychiatric problems. Later the centre extended its counselling service to children too and over 10,000 cases have been handled in the Centre so far. In the later years, the Centre came up with several other projects including the Family Counselling Centre, ‘Santwana’ helpline for women and girls in distress, short stay home for women and girls in distress, Swadhar shelter home for women and girls, De-addiction centre for alcoholic and drug addicts, Community-oriented de-addiction camps, Community women banking, Sphoorthi SHG scheme, Community based HIV/AIDS prevention project and Pediatric initiative for children with HIV/AIDS etc. 

As Prof Hilda Rayappan, the founder of Prajna Counselling Centre puts it, “though the Centre’s main objective was to counsel the women in distress and help solving their family and personal problems, as the days passed Prajna opened itself to several other problems faced by the women and children in the society and decided to intervene by initiating new projects. It is almost like, we opened a new project or programme for every new variety of problem the women or children brought along with them. From counselling, to rehabilitating, to education, to help strengthening the family relationships, Prajna has done it all,” she says.

Transition

The initial days were not at all easy for Prajna. Prof Rayappan recalls that there were hardly any women who approached the centre seeking for help 25 years ago.

“ The women mostly confined their lives to the four walls of a room, where they suffered a great deal from their husband and family members. Yet they did not dare to approach Prajna and share their grievances. However, with the changing time, the number of family problems has raised and so has the number of women who visit the Centre seeking for help,” she says adding that today there are several sexually abuse victims, abandoned girls, battered women and others who have been given a better life in Prajna. 

“At Prajna, several broken families have been reconciled and several couple who have found it highly impossible to keep up their relation have been counselled and asked to take suitable decision rather than stagnating in an unhealthy relationship. Many distressed women who had nowhere to go have found shelter under Prajna and after undergoing vocational training in sewing, embroidery, mat making etc these women have been earning a decent living,” she says.

What next

As the Centre is celebrating its silver jubilee on April 17, as precursor to the programme, a new ambitious concept has been initiated recently. ‘Thangu Dhama’ for teenagers has been opened near Kapikad where the children who could not complete their primary schooling are provided training and are made to join the high school directly.  Prof Hilda Rayappan said that the Centre’s objective for this year is to make more volunteers join hands with the Centre so that the projects can be implemented efficiently. 

The volunteers can work for the Centre on hour basis or on week ends or during the vacations.  She also said that the Centre would extend all its support if any organisation comes forward to establish centres in the taluk centres in the district.