A whole national and local network of professionals is in danger of disappearing, according to the National Federation of Solidarity Women and the collective Nous All. The government puts forward insurmountable legal constraints. We take stock.
Tuesday, January 12, 2021, the collective We All warns on Twitter: the government is about to remove the 3919, to replace it with another device. Caroline de Haas, emblematic figure of the collective, explains in a two-minute video that the 39 19 will be deleted soon, which poses major problems. The disappearance of this number would be a disaster for women in danger, with whom it is gradually starting to be known. It takes years to get a number listed as a reference in the public mind. The alert was given in November 2020 by the president of the Fédération Nationale Solidarité Femmes association, which created the device and this number.
The government quickly retorted: no way to remove the number, it is a call for competition in a public market out of strict necessity to comply with the law. Indeed, the device will be improved: possibility of calling every day, 24 hours a day, and accessibility to deaf and aphasic women. An extension of accessibility which comes at a significant cost, hence the procedure implemented.
A mistrust of associations defended by the ministry
However, We All denounce several problems. Even if the 3919 keeps the same code, the redesign of the platform could lead to dysfunctions and a slowdown in the work of many feminist associations, believes the feminist collective. What We All find scandalous is the government's appropriation of a device it did not create but which it puts in competition. "The associations have been working with chronic shortages of resources for years, estimates Madeline Da Silva, member of the collective Nous All contacted by aufeminin. Companies will compete by answering this call by proving that their ability to handle this number is going to be the most profitable, that is the reality of competition. We make a functioning network falter ". Finally, she fears the possible ousting of the National Federation of Solidarity Women from the equation. "We are dealing with a grassroots association that has had expertise on the subject for years, knows how to train professionals to listen and support", she recalls.
Contacted on this subject, the ministry in charge of equality between women and men and the fight against discrimination retorts that this competition took place according to legal constraints, and that the National Federation of Solidarity Women could made to be chosen. The ministry is promoting the creation of precise specifications, and management of the number open to structures of the social and solidarity economy. Choices made hand in hand with associations since the Grenelle des Violences, we are told.
Not enough to convince all of us: "It's not just a question of number; it is also removing years of practice and networking between associations and professional partners throughout the territory; yet women victims of violence need this networking. Create a network. new platform means starting from scratch. " With the potential loss of the entire ecosystem created and of immense know-how acquired over the years with the means available. It remains to await the next stages of the call for projects, which will be based solely on the interests of the victims, promises the ministry.
During the second confinement, domestic violence increased by 60%.