Forced Marriage Unit visits cash-strapped charity

A UK telephone helpline set up to support victims and survivors of forced marriages and honour related abuse will be forced to halve the number of hours it is staffed in the New Year.

The Karma Nirvana Honour Network Helpline currently responds to crisis calls from 9.30am to 9pm seven days a week, but without Government help it will cut its evening and weekend services in 2010 for lack of funding.

Karma Nirvana charity founder Jasvinder Sanghera broke the news to the head of the government’s Forced Marriages Unit Alan Shaw when he visited its Derby headquarters this week.

The charity had previously said it would have to end the service altogether at the end of December but has decided instead to try to eke out the donations from the public for another six months.

Karma Nirvana has been campaigning hard for over a year for Government help but so far its pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

So it has been asking for the public’s support with an online appeal to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It called for signatures on a petition it launched on the Downing Street E-petition website and since the end of October has gathered more than 1,600 names.

The helpline was set up in April 2008 and has received more than 7,000 calls. The charity says it is a life saver.

It cites the shocking statistic that 33 per cent of all victims who call are below the age of 22 and 11 per cent are under the age of 16.

Jasvinder Sanghera, who is the charity director, and author of the books Shame and Daughters of Shame, which recount ordeals that she and other women have experienced, says that for the past six months the helpline has been totally funded by public donations.

This week Karma Nirvana took the unusual step of writing to police authorities for support – “the police forces we get the most calls from in West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derby, East Midlands and Birmingham,” said Ms Sanghera.

It has also contacted MPs and the Prime Minister’s Office, the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice.

The Home Affairs Select Committee findings into Domestic Violence, Forced Marriage and Honour Based Violence urged the Government last year to ensure the network was properly resourced but there has been no indication that national support will be provided.

Jasvinder Sanghera said: “I am angry that we are having to fight for a helpline that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the UK and that we are in this situation a year after the resource problem was pointed out to the Government.

“We are based in Derby but we are regarded as a national project. Ninety-five per cent of our calls are UK referrals, including those from the Forced Marriage Unit in the London area!

“We get referrals from the National Domestic Violence helpline, from Victim Support and from Crimestoppers, all of which have support from the public purse – and the fact that we get nothing doesn’t make any sense at all.”

Ms Sanghera said: “When we started we could not have anticipated the number of calls we would receive. The success of the line serves to highlight the tragic plight of some of the UK’s most vulnerable people.”

Peak calling periods are closely linked to school holidays when young people fear they may be flown to India and forced into marriage there. UK education authorities have been told to be alert for unexpected absences of young girls who might be forced into such situations against their will.

Karma Nirvana, which supports men as well as women and girls, says the Government has acknowledged that it has been dealing with the “tip of the iceberg” with regard to forced marriage cases.

The charity says it gives victims who call the chance to speak to a survivor and for many it becomes a lifeline that reduces isolation and risk and brings hope where there was previously despair.

“Other agencies ring us for guidance and direction in an area where we know many lack confidence – and it is vital that every agency gives the right response to the first call, because not to do so can be critical to the victim,” said Jasvinder Sanghera.

The Government has recognised that agencies should be governed by the One Chance Rule – meaning, get the response right first time.

Signatories to the Karma Nirvana petition are urging the Prime Minister to act to help British-born subjects experiencing forced marriage and honour based abuse, many of them desperate young people.

Karma Nirvana’s helpline operates seven days but even now it is sometimes understaffed. “Ideally we would like a couple of people staffing the phones all the time but this is not the case at the moment,” said one of the office team.

Karma Nirvana can be contacted on 0800 5999 247 or by email on kninfo@btconnect.com

The website is at: www.karmanirvana.org.uk

The E-petition web address is http://petitions.number10.gov.uk

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