Safecity Monthly Updates: April 2019
UN SDG Action Awards 2019
Red Dot Foundation- Safecity won the award in the Visualiser category of the UN SDG Action Awards in Bonn. We presented our work at the SDG Global Festival of Action on 2 May. Elsa D’Silva, our Founder, accepted the award on behalf of the entire team and also spoke about the importance of breaking the silence around sexual harassment and violence in order to make public spaces safer.
Anti-Street Harassment Week (7-13th April 2019)
Delhi
On 7th April, Vanshika Siya Deswal, Youth Outreach Officer at Safecity, launched the pilot session of Safecity Circles in Delhi on the first day of #AntiStreetHarassmentWeek.
The circle talked about issues of Safety in public spaces. Joined by 10 current and former volunteers, the conversation was very informative and engaging wherein everyone expressed their ideas on safety, street harassment and how unsafe we are in public spaces.
Pune
Pune does not have electricity every Thursday due to load-shedding but this lack of electricity did not deter the young crowd from participating and they drew their thoughts about street harassment by torch light wholeheartedly. This was followed by discussions and sharing of experiences facilitated by Mona More, our Program and Outreach Officer in Pune. 15 children and youth participated in this activity. You can check out more pictures here.
Mumbai- Politalks
As part of the #AntiStreetHarassmentWeek we had Politalks– a discussion on street harassment and the role of urban planning in making public spaces more inclusive. Jeenal Sawla, joined the discussion, sharing insights into the foundations of urban planning and gender inclusive public spaces. 9 people participated in this activity.
Patna
Naina Jha took up the issue of street harassment with the older girls at KahaniGharr in collaboration with Gupshup on 7th April where they shared experiences of facing staring, comments, touching, and other forms of street harassment. 18 students were a part of this workshop. You can read more about it here.
These teens is Bihar can identify street harassment, some of them have been victims and some of them have been guilty of catcalling and commenting themselves. Now, they’ve learned to question normalised societal behaviour. 80 students participated in this workshop.
Make My Streets Safe- Online campaign
Safecity also conducted an online campaign during Anti-Street Harassment Week inviting people of all ages and genders to share stories, poems, blogs, pictures etc of harassment they face on the streets. We received 9 touching and powerful stories. You can have a look at the rest of the stories here.
Getting to know the POSH Act with employees of Suzlon Foundation
Safecity conducted a workshop creating awareness about the Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (POSH) Act for 45 Suzlon members heading CSR across the country, Occupational Engagement team, HR, Company Doctors and interns. The workshop was conducted by Tania Echaporia on 10th April 2019 at Suzlon One Earth, Pune.
Railway Safety Audits in Mumbai
The Safecity Railway Safecity Audits aim to increase and improve the measures of effectiveness on the safety of commuters who travel by train and at the railway stations, along with the Railway authorities and the Government Railway Police Force on the Western, Central & Harbour lines.
This initiative is for a period of 3 months April – June 2019 conducted by a team of volunteers, using a Google survey form with a questionnaire, prepared & provided by Red Dot Foundation.
Responses collected till date are 948. It was found that out of 948 commuters only 72 commuters reported sexual harassment incidents to the police. 82% are not aware about the legislation on women’s safety. Once completed, a detailed report of the audits will be available on our website.
Keynote Speaker at DigiTech 2019
Supreet K Singh, our COO and Director, has been invited to be the Keynote Speaker at the launch event of ETgovernment & #DigiTech2019 on 14th June in New Delhi and we’re honoured!
DigiTech 2019 Conclave & Awards will be a platform to share knowledge, ideas and innovations around Digital India and facilitate discussion on how to help realise the grand vision of digitalising citizen and business focused services across the country. The conclave will consist of conference, exhibition and awards.
Girl Fund Campaign
We have been selected by Global Giving to be part of their Girl Fund Campaign. We appreciate every generous donation. Even $10 will go a long way.
You can use this link to donate- https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/training-10-youth-campus-ambassadors-on-safety/
Corporate Workshops
This month we have been conducting workshops for Corporates like Saavn Media, Ogilvy and Mather and others. In case you would like us to conduct POSH & Gender Sensitivity workshops at your corporate, please do get in touch with us at info@reddotfoundation.org
TweetChats
Through our tweetchats, we are trying to facilitate important conversations around various issues related to gender in general and women’s issues in particular.
Check out April’s compiled tweetchats here – Autism- a caregiver’s perspective, Making Adolescents a National Priority, Youth for Change and Busting the Myth of Girl-on-Girl Hate.
That’s all for this month. Keep watching this space and we’ll keep you updated on all our work and exciting activities every month!
What’s in store for Safecity?
- 27th May– POSH Certification Course in Pune. Register here- bit.ly/POSHcert
- 14th June– Keynote Speaker at the launch event of ETgovernment and DigiTech2019
- 27 & 28th June– Participatory Training in Human Rights Education in Mumbai. Register here- bit.ly/HumanRightsEd
- Every Friday at 9 pm IST/ 1130 am EST join us on Twitter @pinthecreep
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