Monday, July 7, 2025

Healing & setting free women in dysfunctional marriages

Must read

With an aim to rescue and rehabilitate women from their dysfunctional marriages,
The Pioneer brings to you the story of Mandadi Shravya Reddy, founder of the We and She Foundation, working towards making their lives better.

Tejal Sinha
While most people are unfazed by the frequent allegations of young women being pushed into marriage, Mandadi Shravya Reddy, a Telangana native, couldn’t shake the thought, “What happens to the village women in broken marriages?” She set off on her transformative journey through the remote villages of Telangana to find the answer, and along the way, she learned that the rural women faced an unending list of other problems. The We and She Foundation, devoted to assisting marginalised women in achieving financial independence, was founded as a result of her unexpected arrival and knocking on every door in a community.
The We and She Foundation works towards the rehabilitation of women with dysfunctional marriages, with the main objective of identifying and providing counselling sessions to women who have broken or dysfunctional marriages. Also based on the need, she also aims at giving them skill development and job training towards self-sustenance, financial stability, and overall rehabilitation.
“The sacrosanct institution of marriage has seen a lot of changes and is no longer inviolable,” begins the good Samaritan as she continues, “India has lately seen an increase in the number of women with dysfunctional marriages owing to the high divorce rate. The reasons for divorces are many, like harassment and torture, the joint family system, divorce and domestic violence, failure to keep up with the expectations of the spouse, fraud, and others. This alarming increase in divorce has forced women into financial hardship and emotional breakdown. It has created a sense of emptiness in them and, in some cases, driven them to take extreme steps like suicide. After thorough research, we realised that we have organisations for rape survivors, trafficked survivors, and widows too. But we do not have an organisation that supports and empathises with single women.”
Well, that’s how We and She came into being and now envision a society that treats women with dysfunctional marriages with high respect and provides them the opportunity to lead a normal life.
Shravya had her own share of challenges, and in fact, for the betterment of society, she quit her full-fledged corporate job and gave up her UPSC preparation too. “People said I shouldn’t be entering this space. And when I started to work with women in these slums and rural areas, I had to hear a lot of things from my peers, like she is too young for an NGO, yeh humhe seekhaayegi NGO kaise chalana aur samaj seva ke bhaare mein (She’s going to teach us how to run an NGO and how social work is done). In spite of all this, someone who learned to rise like a phoenix from the ashes because I hail from a family of freedom fighters.”
Freedom Fighter? Well, yes, her grandfather, Adavally Indrasena Reddy, was a part of India’s Freedom Struggle and Telangana’s Sayudha Poratam.
Started off as a one-woman army, now they are a core team of 525 full-time volunteers and an army of 1000 volunteers. Highlighting one of their campaigns, she says, “We did a campaign in 31 districts in 31 days for the “We for Her” and “Memu Mekosam” campaigns. We and she traversed for more than 4116 km, interacted with more than 30000 women across the state, had the opportunity to know different problems pertaining to women, and empowered  547 women with dysfunctional marriages. The campaign has provided them with vocation and rehabilitation by conducting workshops where they learn to make clothes, small products, etc. and are able to earn their income by selling those products. We do awareness campaigns in high schools and colleges, trying to educate young girls on how to be confident in life no matter what the situation is.”
Sharing her time with the ‘Joginis’ and the ‘Byagaras’, she recalls, “It was Day 26 in Medak district as part of 31 days “WE FOR HER”. The visit was to the Giddhakatta area. I met Jogini women (girls who have dedicated their lives as servants of gods) in this place. Their social condition was pathetic, and they did not have any proper livelihood. They are in need of real help. On several occasions, I have made my point to the government, and as you are aware, government things take time. But I have been consistent in raising my voice for these women. I even met women who perform funerals for orphaned dead bodies. They were doing the job for a very small amount, and it was difficult to run the house with such meager amounts. The task is horrible owing to the difficulty it poses. I suggested some fixed amounts for such funerals as a way forward.” Well, initially, as she went down this extraordinary path in her journey, she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to reach the finish line. However, she strongly feels like a destiny child, and God chose her to be the dependable face for single women. She made this her motivation and has never looked back since then.
On a concluding note, she feels that Hyderabad is not so welcoming when it comes to NGO work compared to other metropolitan cities. But at the same time, “I was fortunate enough to meet good samaritans who resonate with my vision. They have always encouraged me to go the extra mile. We want We and She to be household names, not just in Telangana but across the country. We do have plans to take our organisation to the northern, eastern, and western parts of the country. We are focused on reintegrating and rehabilitating women with dysfunctional marriages back into society by giving them the required support and training.”

Previous article
Next article
- Advertisement -spot_img

More articles

- Advertisement -spot_img

Latest article