Several government social relief shelters in east China have been stepping outside their traditional jurisdictions to help victims - most of them women - escape domestic violence and start life anew.

Their work, though still in the experimental stages, is helping to reveal the most effective intervention schemes that the national network of 1,200 similar shelters across China can use to assist women and children who run away from brutal family members.

Traditional Chinese dogma dictates that public officials should not interfere in family affairs. As a result, violence has gone unchecked in many homes. Victims have no one to turn to, and it is difficult for them to resettle in new homes because of restrictions on residence registration.

As a result, the brutality continues, and in some cases leads to bloodshed and crime.

More and more people recognize the physical and psychological pain that victims of domestic violence endure. When these victims take the first step by leaving their homes, they need more than just shelter. They need help getting on their own feet again and turning a new page in their lives. For them, there is no turning back.

The effort to introduce intervention schemes into social relief shelters across the country should be lauded for its innovative approach to circumventing the restrictions posed by residential certificates in order to help victims escape the fear and violence of abuse.

It also suggests that a broader-based policy change is on the horizon, in which the government and its relief agencies consider it a duty to provide care and assistance to women and children caught up in domestic violence.

This will require patience and time-consuming professional efforts, but the work must be done - one out of five women who call the All China Women's Federation complain about violence in their homes.

Social stability and harmony demand active intervention.

(China Daily July 16, 2007)