'Our honour-based abuse charity is seeing more and more cases'

Karma Nirvana is a charity that works with victims of honour-based abuse and violence

A charity that supports victims of "honour"-based abuse has said that more professionals and agencies are identifying and reporting cases to them.

Leeds-based Karma Nirvana accepted more than 3,000 referrals in 2024/5 - its busiest year on record. Many contacts came from police and social services.

Honour-based abuse is perpetrated by people claiming to uphold the so-called "honour" of their family. It often involves physical violence and coercive control.

Natasha Rattu, executive director of the charity, said: "It's great that we are getting more reporting, but we know that the data we have is just the tip of the iceberg."

'Torturous abuse'

Honour-based abuse victim Usha's parents moved to West Yorkshire from India before having four children.

Her relationship with them was troubled from infancy and the violence escalated as she grew older.

"I was brought up believing that I was wrong, that I was born wrong and that everything I did was wrong."

She said her parents controlled everything she did and she was regularly beaten.

"There was a lot of physical abuse, there was quite a lot of torturous abuse, physical and emotional neglect. For a period my neck and my feet were tied so that I couldn't bend my legs when I was sleeping.

"I have got some scars in my head from when I was pushed against things."

She suffered problems with her teeth because she was not taken to see a dentist during childhood.

Usha did poorly in her GCSEs and left school with her future uncertain.

"My parents were talking about marrying me off as the only option. My dad said: 'You can either do exactly what we want you to do or you go and we never want to see you again.'

"From past experiences of things that happened in my community, I knew that I wasn't going to be allowed to just walk out of the house.

"I managed to escape out of a living room window."

Over the next few years, she moved around the care system.

But the threats from her family didn't end, even when she was living in a children's home.

"They told me that my uncles in India had found out that I had left home at 16, unmarried, and that they were going to come to England and kill me."

Natasha Rattu, from Karma Nirvana, said the number of cases the charity was seeing was "only the tip of the iceberg"

Karma Nirvana runs a helpline and support service for victims.

Ms Rattu added: "Emotional abuse and coercive control are used in the vast majority of cases that we come across.

"People disclose physical abuse and violence at the hands of perpetrators."

New figures from the organisation's annual helpline report show that Karma Nirvana helped 3,079 victims in the last year.

One in four cases involved abuse by parents, while a third said their abuser was their partner. More than 90% of victims were female.

The majority of those referred to the service were from South Asian backgrounds, but they also helped victims who identified as black, Arab and white.

Karma Nirvana runs a national helpline to support victims

Ms Rattu said the charity felt it was positive that more people felt able to come forward and that agencies such as the police were approaching the charity, but that problems were still under-reported.

"We know that the data we have is just the tip of the iceberg and that there are many more people affected by these issues than are reaching out for help," she said.

"Social services are dealing with a lot of complex, difficult dynamics that they don't necessarily have the tools, the knowledge or the experience to deal with."

Karma Nirvana delivers training around spotting honour-based abuse to council and police officers

In a statement, the government said: " 'Honour'-based abuse is a serious form of abuse that nobody should have to experience.

"The government will use every tool at its disposal to bring perpetrators to justice and ensure victims receive the support they deserve, including increasing funding to Karma Nirvana to operate a dedicated helpline."

A commitment was also made earlier this year to provide new statutory guidance and a legal definition of honour-based abuse, and more training for professionals such as police officers, teachers and social workers.

2024 was the first year that more referrals to Karma Nirvana came from professionals than from victims themselves.

Ms Rattu added: "It's really positive in that it means professionals are either better at recognising honour-based abuse, or it means that there are more people going to professionals to speak about the issues."

Usha now has no contact with her family but has gone on to have her own children and now delivers training to agencies.

She said: "We're using our pain to empower other people, to give them the knowledge, to give them the understanding not to use culture and religion as excuses to do nothing, but reminding people that everybody has the same human rights."

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