RAHI’s community capacity building project, HumRAHI, works to empower community groups working in rural areas to address child sexual abuse. We work with our early and child marriage partners, Mahila Jan Adhikar Samiti in Ajmer and Sahiyar Stree Sangathan in Vadodara.

The HumRAHI Project was conceived as a way to empower organisations working in rural India to address the issue of incest and child sexual abuse. Anecdotal data and statistics both show a rise in this form of abuse both in rural and urban areas. However, rural areas, as always, continue to be under-serviced. Community works need to be equipped with the tools they need to prevent abuse, as well as to reach out to child victims and adult survivors.

With HumRAHI, RAHI Foundation ties issue of early marriage to the issue of incest and child sexual abuse. Work on early marriage aims at moving the age of marriage of girls forward to at least 18 years. This means that girls will continue to live with their natal families for longer and, therefore, it is essential that the home environment be free from sexual abuse.

HumRAHI is the only project of its kind. It forms a critical bridge with a vision to share knowledge about and deepen perspective on incest and child sexual abuse and build capacities of team members from grassroots organisations to address this critical area in the communities they work with.