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Approach
Where we work
Where we work
Our approach
Our Approach
Survivor Centric Intervention
Providing trauma-informed safe shelters and access to essential services.
Systemic Intervention
Collaboration with state actors to adopt gender-sensitive practices.
Survivor Centric Intervention
Providing trauma-informed safe shelters and access to essential services.
Outreach
Young women survivors are often forced to live in unsafe conditions, experiencing extreme poverty and heightened exposure to human trafficking networks and sexual exploitation. Urja’s outreach team conducts regular visits to public transit points, including major railway stations such as CSMT, Mumbai Central, Dadar, Bandra, and Kurla LTT, to proactively identify and support young women upon arrival, preventing further exploitation and harm. Urja’s shelter safe spaces are strategically located near key railway stations, ensuring they are easily accessible to young survivors coming to Mumbai from other states and neighbouring districts in search of safety and support.
Railway stations
Facilitating Safe and Inclusive Shelter
Our safe and inclusive shelters are accessible to all survivors of violence, whether they arrive in Mumbai from outside or face violence within the city. The shelter provides a healing and enabling environment where survivors can rest, experience deep sleep, maintain personal hygiene, and regain a sense of safety. Residents receive nutritious meals that help restore energy and support overall wellbeing. Through these services, the shelter helps survivors rebuild stability, confidence, and a renewed sense of security.
Holistic Wellbeing and Psychosocial Support
Urja focuses on physical and mental health, facilitating access to daily and supplementary nutrition, medical checkups and preventive healthcare support through access to expert’s knowledge and resources. Urja’s survivor-centric interventions conduct regular psychological counselling, group and individual sessions, and use methods of psychomotor therapy such as talk therapy, and expressive arts therapy and dance movement therapy to develop emotional resilience and help in healing from trauma. Urja supports survivors to heal from their physical and mental trauma for an enhanced sense of living and with renewed hope.
Education and Livelihood Support
Through Urja’s holistic rehabilitation processes, young survivors are equipped with educational opportunities, enrollment in formal and informal education, skills training, accessing dignified livelihood opportunities, and experiencing economic independence. The group and individual capacity buillding process aims at developing soft skills, financial and digital literacy for their overall work readiness. Further Urja facilitates access to their identity documents and opening their bank accounts.
At Urja Trust, we believe that equipping survivors of gender-based violence with education, skills, and livelihood opportunities is more than just rehabilitation, it is a pathway to reclaiming their autonomy and restoring their dignity.
Civil and Legal Support
Urja Trust facilitates access to civil entitlements and legal protection to help survivors restore their rights, identity, and dignity. We support women in obtaining essential identity documents, accessing government welfare schemes, and navigating legal processes related to violence, exploitation, custody, maintenance, and other civil matters. Through legal counselling, referrals, and coordination with relevant authorities and service providers, we enable survivors to make informed decisions and access justice while strengthening their long-term protection and social inclusion.
Systemic Intervention
Collaboration with state actors to adopt gender-sensitive practices.
Strengthening Systems for Gender Responsiveness and Sensitivity
Urja works with government stakeholders including the Department of Women and Child Development, Women’s Commission, Social Welfare Department, Health and Urban Housing Ministries, Police, and Judiciary to improve policies and interventions that ensure the safety, health, and inclusion of marginalized women. Through capacity-building workshops on mental wellness, gender, and power dynamics, government officials gain better understanding, demonstrate positive behavioral changes, and increase accountability and referrals. By equipping systemic stakeholders, we help ensure that survivors accessing shelter, healthcare, and livelihood support receive the protection and inclusion they are constitutionally entitled to.
Government stakeholders
Community Intervention
Engagements with Communities for Gender Sensitisation and Social Transformation
Urja engages directly with communities to raise awareness about gender equality, the impact of violence on women, and the importance of holistic support including shelter, healthcare, and livelihoods. This promotes the active participation of men, women, youth, and children in asserting gender rights, challenging patriarchal norms, and creating environments where survivors can safely access services, rebuild livelihoods, and live with dignity.
Mankosh
Survivors Movement