Most of SAK's projects are targeted at tackling the issues it has identified for itself. Of these one activity that has been a constant feature of SAK over the last two decades has been Family Counselling. Apart from these SAK takes up projects from time to time to tackle specific issues of women.  

SAK has over 25 family counselling centres in over ten districts of Maharashtra. A number of these centres operate at the community, village and taluka level in these ten districts. The centre is normally managed by a team comprising trained counsellor(s), social worker(s) and lawyer(s). The size of the centre is determined   by the population it covers and the extent of problem of violence. As far as possible, the team is drawn from within the community (at least the district) so that they are conversant with the mores and value systems of the society.  Aid is provided to the victims in a variety of ways including proactive and reactive home visits, meetings with both the parties - the oppressor and oppressed, intervention of community elders and leaders, interaction with police machinery etc. The primary attempt of the exercise is to effect a reconciliation and prevent further violence. Legal action is the last step and used only if all other techniques prove fruitless.  Trained and gender sensitive lawyers work with SAK on the cases that come to the centre. In the past SAK has organised Lok Adalats (people's courts) to ensure that the cases of women in distress (alimony, child support, share of property and other civil matters) get speedy justice.  

Over the last two to three years SAK has been making attempts to involve the community in the fight against domestic violence.  It has designed and implemented its Z Scheme in four police station beats - two urban and two rural.  The scheme is based on deployment of multiple parallel interventions at the community level to mitigate the problem of violence. The scheme, the most sustainable intervention in the long run, is an attempt to make the community discharge its responsibilities and protect the victims.  Some of the measures used include

• Awareness campaigns for women's rights at the community level  
  

• Monthly meetings of Community and local leaders 

• Neighbourhood (Moholla) committee meetings to motivate the community to act as watchdogs for cases of violence in their midst

• Training of police personnel focusing on sensitising them to gender issues

• Meetings for Males for involving them in the programme  

• Intercession with legal aid and counselling in specific cases of violence 

• This project, which is supported by UNIFEM, has been received with great enthusiasm by the community and the law enforcement machinery.

The primary objective of the project, supported by UNIFEM,  is to ensure that "the planning and strategizing that has gone into the ninth five year plan as regards women's empowerment" is followed up at various levels of implementation. The project aims to

• establish linkages and correlation between State policies, the ninth plan and various international declarations including CEDAW, Optional Protocol to CEDAW, ICPD, Jakarta Declaration, PFA etc. with a view to making policy inputs and giving rise to concrete points of action,  
  

• disseminate information on various governmental schemes and plans related to women's health and violence against women to the targeted beneficiaries and  
  

• ascertain the impact  of developmental schemes in the areas of women's health and violence against women at the grassroots in both urban and rural areas from a gender perspective.

  This project is supported by AusAid, the development support department of the Australian High Commission. It aims at "providing support and strength to various women's development programmes in  nine districts of Maharashtra through the twin strategies of training and support to grassroots teams". SAK has established Women's Development Forums in nine districts of Maharashtra state.  These forums that comprise volunteers and activists will  provide a support structure to the women's groups working in these districts. Some of the key issues that these forums will tackle are

• violence against women,  
  

• awareness of women's legal and human rights,  
  

• poverty alleviation (mainly implementation of welfare and developmental schemes of government) and  
  

• implementation of policies framed for women's development.

The Women's Development Forums will also provide a medium for establishing and strengthening linkages of women at grassroots and the government machinery.

• improvement in the state of health of the women  
  

• improvement in the overall awareness of women regarding their rights like right to hold and till land,  
  

• ensuring that the proper gender perspective is maintained in all rehabilitation work,  
  

• providing legal aid and assistance to women in distress, 
  

• mobilizing women into groups built around savings and credit activities, 
  

• formalizing the women's groups into legal structures like Mahila Mandals  
  

• enabling the women's groups to obtain assistance for income generation through government schemes and  
  

• facilitating a network amongst the various groups,

These activities are on-going. SAK has developed a women's training centre at Haregaon in Latur. This centre also acts as a support centre for women's groups and undertakes the task of information dissemination especially relating to women's legal rights and development schemes of the government.

SAK is undertaking an exploratory study to look at the process of justice delivery within the existing legal framework by covering nearly 100 cases from nearly 10 courts in Maharashtra and suggest possible measures. This process has been supported by the National Commission for Women and will involve meetings and discussions with lawyers, judiciaries other NGOs working on legal issues of women, grassroots activities, women who have litigated to ensure their rights are upheld etc. a report will be published at the end of the project in December 2001.
  

     
SAK is undertaking an ambitious project to tackle the issue of trafficking of women. This pilot project will be implemented in Pune city. The three main interventions planned in the project are:

1. A help desk at the main rail road termini in the city to identify women and girls in distress (who are accompanied by strange men and women).
2. A flying squad to follow-up on the cases of trafficking reported to the SAK helpline and
3. Counselling and legal aid support to the women rescued from traffickers.