Several government social relief shelters in east China have
been stepping outside their traditional jurisdictions to help
victims - most of them women - escape domestic violence and start
life anew.
Their work, though still in the experimental stages, is helping
to reveal the most effective intervention schemes that the national
network of 1,200 similar shelters across China can use to assist
women and children who run away from brutal family members.
Traditional Chinese dogma dictates that public officials should
not interfere in family affairs. As a result, violence has gone
unchecked in many homes. Victims have no one to turn to, and it is
difficult for them to resettle in new homes because of restrictions
on residence registration.
As a result, the brutality continues, and in some cases leads to
bloodshed and crime.
More and more people recognize the physical and psychological
pain that victims of domestic violence endure. When these victims
take the first step by leaving their homes, they need more than
just shelter. They need help getting on their own feet again and
turning a new page in their lives. For them, there is no turning
back.
The effort to introduce intervention schemes into social relief
shelters across the country should be lauded for its innovative
approach to circumventing the restrictions posed by residential
certificates in order to help victims escape the fear and violence
of abuse.
It also suggests that a broader-based policy change is on the
horizon, in which the government and its relief agencies consider
it a duty to provide care and assistance to women and children
caught up in domestic violence.
This will require patience and time-consuming professional
efforts, but the work must be done - one out of five women who call
the All China Women's Federation complain about violence in their
homes.
Social stability and harmony demand active intervention.
(China Daily July 16, 2007)