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Restoring Sight, Health, and Dignity: Health Camp Initiatives for Torture Survivors and Marginalized Communities – 2025

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Health Camp Report – 2025 Project: 993-DA-2: Promoting a Psycho-Legal Framework to Reduce Torture and Other Violence (TOV) in India Organization: Jan Mitra Nyas Supported by: UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture In 2025, Jan Mitra Nyas implemented a series of health-focused interventions to improve access to essential healthcare for torture survivors and marginalized communities. A total of three health camps were organized, benefiting 214 individuals , including 170 women and 44 men . The largest camp, held on 18 March 2025 at Kathirav, Varanasi , served 143 beneficiaries , identifying 44 cataract patients for free surgery, lens implantation, and post-operative care, thereby supporting rehabilitation and dignity restoration. Another free eye screening camp on 10 April 2025 at Swaraji Devi Balika Inter College, Pindra , screened 43 individuals , with 25 patients diagnosed with cataract and referred for free treatment along with transportation support. Additionally, a special ...
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Building Capacity for Change: Strengthening Psycho-Legal Support to Combat Torture in India

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  Training Report with Analysis (1 January – 31 December 2025) Project: 993-DA-2: Promoting a Psycho-Legal Framework to Reduce Torture and Other Violence (TOV) in India Organization: Jan Mitra Nyas Supported by: UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture 1. Introduction Capacity building is a core component of effective psycho-legal intervention and victim support. During 2025, Jan Mitra Nyas organized a series of structured training programs to enhance staff competencies in monitoring, evaluation, medico-legal practices, intervention strategies, and public advocacy. These trainings aimed to strengthen institutional response mechanisms for survivors of torture and other violence while improving program implementation. 2. Training Overview According to the training report covering 1 January – 31 December 2025 , a total of 7 training programs were conducted with 178 participants , including 126 male and 52 female participants. Most trainings were internal, ensuring consistent org...
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Listening as Justice: Testimonial Therapy, Institutional Accountability, and Community Healing in 2025

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Justice in democratic societies is often imagined as something delivered through courts and legal verdicts. Yet long before a judgment is pronounced, justice begins when institutions and communities choose to listen. The experience of testimonial therapy in 2025 demonstrates this profound truth — that structured listening, public recognition, and psychosocial care can restore dignity while strengthening accountability. During the year, testimonial therapy reached 151 survivors , including 87 women and 64 men , reaffirming the importance of gender-inclusive trauma support. The initiative extended beyond private counseling by organizing 151 honour ceremonies — 56 collective and 95 individual — transforming personal suffering into public acknowledgment and reinforcing survivors’ social legitimacy. Survivor Profile and Nature of Harm Among the participants, 119 were primary victims and 32 secondary victims , highlighting the far-reaching consequences of violence on families and communiti...
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Folk School as a Survivors’ Support Initiative for Torture Prevention and Community Healing

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The Folk School model represents an innovative grassroots strategy that combines participatory education, psychosocial support, and community mobilization to prevent torture and promote long-term healing among marginalized populations. Rooted in the belief that justice becomes attainable when individuals develop the capacity to speak without fear, the initiative focuses on strengthening survivor agency, rebuilding dignity, and fostering democratic participation. In 2025, a total of 43 Folk Schools engaged 1,439 participants — including 848 women and 591 men — across vulnerable settlements. These sessions addressed critical issues such as police torture, violence, domestic abuse, and legal rights awareness, positioning the Folk School not merely as an educational intervention but as a preventive human rights mechanism. The integration of testimonial therapy and honour ceremonies further deepens the model’s impact by transforming private suffering into collective awareness and social ...
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The Price of Justice: How PVCHR’s Efforts Helped Secure ₹1.08 Crore ($130,000) in Compensation for Victims

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  Justice is often spoken of in moral terms — dignity, rights, and accountability. Yet in many cases, justice becomes visible only when institutions recognize failure and provide compensation to victims. A recent compilation of 18 human rights cases demonstrates this reality, with authorities awarding a total of ₹1,08,00,000 (approximately $130,000 USD)  in 2025 to affected individuals and their families. Behind these numbers lies the persistent advocacy of the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) , working in coordination with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to ensure that victims were neither ignored nor forgotten. These compensations are not acts of charity; they are acknowledgments of institutional responsibility. Each payment reflects a story of loss — lives cut short, families pushed into crisis, and communities left grappling with irreversible trauma. Without sustained intervention by PVCHR and the oversight of NHRC, many of these cases mig...
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Listening as Justice: Institutional Accountability and Community Healing in the Alleged Custodial Death of Vijay Soni

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I n democracies, justice is often imagined as something that begins in courtrooms and ends with a verdict. Yet the deeper truth is this: justice begins the moment institutions choose to listen. The ongoing proceedings in the alleged custodial death of 21-year-old Vijay Soni in Uttar Pradesh remind us why institutional vigilance and civil society engagement remain indispensable to the protection of human dignity. At a time when public trust in accountability mechanisms is frequently tested, the sustained involvement of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the trauma-informed work of the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) together offer a powerful example of how democratic safeguards are meant to function. This is not merely the story of one family’s grief. It is a reflection of the constitutional promise that every life matters — and that the state must remain answerable when questions arise about the exercise of power. The Importance of Institutional Persis...
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