The lack of counselling with perpetrators is one of the contributing factors to recurring domestic violence cases in society.

The lack of counselling with perpetrators is one of the contributing factors to recurring domestic violence cases in society.

The issue topped a panel discussion on promising practices on preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls by various feminist organizations.

Medical Services Pacific Country Director Ashna Shaleen believes a practical approach is needed to address the gap.

She says MSP has counseled few domestic violence offenders following approval from Court.

“We provide support to the family of the perpetrators. Many at times they come and say they were not ready for this. Why me, why us is the breadwinner and this is the dilemma and few have been reached out.”

Pacific Centre for Peacebuilding Executive Director Florence Swamy says they aim to strengthen its offender programs so that more males can become advocates to help eliminate violence in society.

“Going beyond that what we also do is we work with victims of crime. Again restorative justice tools are shared with them. And when we find the parties are coming to a space where they are managing themselves we bring them to space where they can have conversations with each other.”

Meanwhile, the recent increase in domestic violence cases has forced various feminist organizations to step out of their boundaries in a bid to address them.

It has also been noted that most of these organizations have limited resources to accommodate the number of violence against women cases recorded in the past few months.