Nool: A Chennai thrift store just for survivors of gender-based violence

The International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care (PCVC) has opened a shop in Chennai for survivors of gender-based violence they work with. The thrift store is filled with pretty clothes from well-known labels, handbags, children’s games, jewellery and household supplies.  Nool: Weave your Future, caters exclusively to survivors of gender-based violence who have left their homes and need to start life again from scratch. It's a space where survivors can shop with dignity for things beyond those that the PCVC’s shelter already provides in its kits. The items can be bought against coupons provided to them by PCVC. 

“Everything they buy doesn’t just have to meet their essential needs,” says Swetha Shankar, PCVC’s senior director of programmes, “It can also meet a want. That aspirational aspect of the store is also what we’re focused on.” When survivors are able to choose what they can wear and how they can keep their home, it is also about being able to take back control, she points out. “Many survivors might not have been able to choose what they wear on a daily basis before leaving their households,” Swetha explains.

Princella Suresh, Lead, Domestic Violence and Psycho-social Intervention at PCVC, recalls an interaction with a survivor. “She told me how in her home she hadn’t been allowed to wear a skirt and top. She was told, ‘You are a married woman with a child. You should wear only sarees. That is our tradition.’ Her family said it ‘wasn’t right’ to wear a skirt and top,” Princella says. So, for a survivor to exercise choice, it becomes empowering.

Nool’s two-room shop is lit up with cosy yellow lights. Soothing murals adorn the walls with a thick-curtained trial room in a corner. Rows of ethnic and western wear for adults and children hang from neat racks. The aesthetics are just as pleasing as boutique showrooms across the city. Survivors who work with PCVC can access the shop by appointment, and it's also open to survivors who are referred by PCVC's partner organisations. 

Sandhya, who joined PCVC about a month ago, works at the store. “The clothes come in through various donations. We’ve spent weeks sorting, cleaning and setting up the store. If the clothes given to us are too old, we dispose them," Sandhya says. There are also some new items, like cloth masks that of course should not be used second hand.

PCVC is still open to donations of clothes, bedding, accessories, bags, shoes and more as long as contributors keep the guidelines below in mind. Those seeking to make donations, can reach PCVC at the email ID info@pcvconline.org

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