Safecity Monthly Updates – November 2022

Safecity is committed to creating safer communities for everyone. Our goal is to empower citizens by helping them understand the potential risks they could face in different neighbourhoods. We can do this by sharing our experiences or others anonymously and make these stories available for all. The platform serves law enforcement agencies with information on sexual harassment and other crimes occurring in public and private spaces. The platform’s data helps keep public spaces safe by enabling authorities to keep track of incidents and prevent sexual harassment in the future.

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Red Dot Foundation Headlines

And the Winner Is………. Red Dot Foundation!

Congratulations to our stellar team! ?

We stand together – strong, fearless and compassionate.

Our film Bioscope Stories vs Bollywood won 1 Gold and 3 Silvers at the Gong Awards.

At Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards in DC:

ElsaMarie DSilva was in Washington DC for the annual Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards. She was given an opportunity to share the work of Red Dot Foundation and highlight the power of the network.

Please see the video here.

We are pleased and grateful that the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres gave us a shoutout.

“I am thinking of people like Elsa Marie D’Silva from India, who co-founded a platform that crowdsources and maps sexual violence and harassment … Her efforts are mobilising thousands of young people around the world to break the silence and end gender-based violence,” Guterres said in his opening remarks at the 9th Global Forum of the Alliance of Civilisations in Fez, Morocco.

Please read the article here.

Stand Up against Street Harassment

In our ongoing project, “Stand Up against Street Harassment”, RDF has joined hands with L’Oreal Paris India and Right To Be to educate the public about street harassment in public areas and sensitise and teach local communities how to intervene in such a circumstance. 7,000 people have been successfully trained in Maharashtra from June to November.

These engaging one-hour training sessions equip people to resist harassment on the street and be active as well as effective bystanders. Through involvement and practice, participants picked up easy intervention tactics based on the 5Ds methodology, which they can use while maintaining their own and the victim’s safety in case the situation arises.

The aim is to provide them with simple easy-to-use tools to help them to feel more confident about responding in safe and simple ways when they witness incidents of street harassment.

We are happy to hear:

“It was a wonderful session. Thank you.” – Emilia Alexander, SIES College of Commerce & Economics, Sion

Rainbow Circles

In our constant pursuit to create safe spaces, RDF collaborates with the US Consulate General, Mumbai, to create a safe campus culture, and to reduce the risk of gender-based violence on campuses through our project – “Safe, Inclusive, and Diverse Campuses (Rainbow Circles)”.

This program is for students (above the age of 18), faculty, and administration, in colleges in Karnataka, Goa, and Maharashtra.

Five students from each college were nominated by the institution, and are training in a leadership course by RDF. After this training, each student will conduct a series of activities on their college campuses, including awareness programs and audits of locations on and off campus for increased safety. They will also review and evaluate internal policies and remedial mechanisms, and build confidence in their peers to address sexual violence whenever it is experienced or witnessed. Faculty and administration will also be sensitized through workshops, particularly on gender and sex, challenging gender norms, the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) Act, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Our enthusiastic students from SIES College, Mumbai say “We really enjoyed both yesterday and today’s sessions. The sessions are very interactive, and give us a chance to talk about things we normally don’t get to share, as well as the opportunity to hear other people’s stories and perspectives. Most of all, we love our instructors, who always ask for our individuality perspectives and give us the chance to voice our opinions. We have learnt a lot from these sessions, and are very satisfied with them. One thing that could be improved is including more games in the modules, as they’re a lot of fun to play, and help us understand concepts better as well.”

Our Rainbow Circles Workshops across Maharashtra

We are thrilled to offer this dynamic program to your institution. Write to us at prerana@reddotfoundation.org.

Responsible Community-Based Tourism: Life Skill Program for Women Entrepreneurs

Behind every successful woman is …another successful woman.

Red Dot Foundation strives to reach out to empower women and is currently hosting a responsible tourism start-up incubator to enable women and young leaders to develop placemaking based products and services based on the unique and authentic experiences based on local vernacular traditions.

This program is being hosted by Red Dot Foundation, The Urban Vision, Tiniva and with support from Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration (WGSHA) and SIDBI.

We believe that this program will catalyze an ecosystem for community-based tourism and placemaking in Goa. Thus far we have mentored 25 placemaking micro-entrepreneurs by facilitating learning of place & entrepreneurial skills, access to resources and mentorship, and created linkages in the marketplace through a digital marketplace, PlaceXplore Lab.

As part of the program, RDF participated in the Goa Heritage Festival (15 – 19th November) where the women happily showcased and sold their products.

On December 12th, the 25 women will receive a certificate of participation at the graduation ceremony to be held in Panaji, Goa.

SAGE Brave Movement

As part of the global SAGE Brave Movement, Red Dot Foundation took part in the 2nd Annual World Day for Prevention, Healing and Justice to End Childhood Sexual Violence. The highlight of the month was making learning fun. An activity ‘Child Sexual Abuse Prevention’ navigating legalities of child abuse through a board game was introduced and played on and offline with 55 young people, across 4 cities in schools in Pune, Goa, Bengaluru and Delhi on November 18, 2022, marking it as a Global Mobilization Day for Brave Movement. The trainers introduced the game through a case study. Participants then took the story ahead through the board game to reach their final goal. What followed the game was a brief understanding of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.

Totally engrossed with Mrunalini Kamble in Satara

“I played the board game with 6 special needs and neurodivergent children, and they all got really into it.” – Prerana Keshav in Bengaluru

Vaibhavi Maske capturing attention in Pune with 19 youth from Lighthouse NGO

The boardgame fever catches on! Seen here, Jyoti Goyal with 14 children in New Delhi.

Feedback received:
“I couldn’t imagine that a board game like snakes and ladders that everyone has played could turn into such an informative regarding aspects of child sexual abuse and how to prevent it. Not only that, I was pleasantly surprised to know that there is a law called POCSO Act, 2012 with provisions to support children to report a crime. And this gives me the confidence to speak about the law in my community, and someday play this game with more children, as this surely was a friendly way to learn about such a sensitive issue.”

– Sakshi, 22-year-old student, Pune

In other news, the round table we conducted with G.D. Goenka Public School, Lucknow on understanding POCSO Act, 2012 was a huge success. Here’s an article published in the Lucknow newspaper:

As part of the Brave Movement, RDF also held a series of online SafeCircle workshops through the months of November and December. They were ably conducted in 2 languages by our well experienced team member, Jyoti Goyal, fluent in HIndi and English, who made the participants feel completely at ease. We received an overwhelming response of 43 applications.

SafeCircle is a secure, trusting space for survivors of violence and trauma.

Please join us in sharing and learning. This is a non-judgemental listening circle for survivors to share their experiences, learn from others and know that they are not alone. We facilitate a safe community space where we can seek to find solutions through sharing, listening and offering insights.

We are proud to be a part of Brave Movement for 1.5 successive years.

Youth Innovation Challenge

As we draw closer to the end of 2022, we also inch closer to the much-awaited final pitch, on December 13, 2022, of the 9 teams of the Youth Innovation Challenge that have been working furiously on their projects in the last five months.

This innovation challenge is jointly hosted by Red Dot Foundation in collaboration with UN-Habitat, UNICEF, Her City, Global Utmaning, The Urban Vision, Developmatrix, NIUA and Aga Khan Agency for Habitat.

To participate in the Youth Innovation Challenge on Engendering Climate Action for Water and Waste Management in their Communities, the teams attended intense online masterclasses and were mentored by experts in their field.

Their projects include:

No.	Team Name	Organisation	Summary
1	Cool-HER	ResUrban	Cool and safe rest spaces for marginalized populations. Cool-HER will be a publicly accessible website that will assist non-cis gendered males identifying individuals in finding safe areas that are substantially cooler during heat waves or scorching summers. This website or app can be created with public participation and assistance. A future for this website might help in allocating spaces during different climate catastrophes like flash floods or harsh winters.
2	Denoizers	SK Somaiya College	Sustainable Sound absorption panels. Inspired by the design of the anechoic wedges and by looking at the potential applications of Ancuta Tiuc et al.’s work, Sustainable Sound Absorption Panels which are made up of 40% textile waste and 60% polyurethane foam can be installed at various places like construction sites, industrial areas, airports, roadways, railways, crowded public spaces, etc. to mitigate the level of noise. As the materials of the product would wear off, it can be repaired/rebuilt and redistributed to the customer – eliminating waste and capitalizing on the product value, all while mitigating noise and textile pollution.
3	The Minimalists	Indian Institute of Technology	“Reducing Waste in Universities: The idea is to create a scalable set of rules/guidelines which can be implemented by Universities for reducing waste. We consider it to come under Section 2(b) of the problem statement.
4	MERI	Mahadare Ecological Research Institute(MERI)	Bombix Mori Frass: Zero Budget-Zero Waste Management In Sericulture. We are developing a method which can be used globally. The Bombyx mori frass is purely sericulture-based sustainable waste management practice. It is organic and environment-friendly manure. This frass is rich in nutrients required for any crop, such as nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium which is in good quantity. We can use it as organic manure, for mulberry plants can improve the quality of silk as it is purely organic bioconversion. Outcome: It minimizes risk of emission of greenhouse gases by preventing landfill. It improves water holding capacity of soil that conserves water. It strengthens the cell wall of plants as it contains ‘Chitin’. As it does not get saturated into fields it can prevent salinity of land and water pollution. This will undoubtedly assist farmers in producing organic fertilizers on their own scale resulting in Zero Budget organic manure. As all the products used for manure are purely organic and eco-friendly so it is definitely a Zero Waste Design.
5	Foricoss	College of Forestry	Waste Management Plan for Beaches : Few months ago I was doing my academic research work on this beach; while doing this I came to know how badly polluted these types of coastal villages are, which consist of both Bio(Fish) waste as well as plastic waste and how it harms the ecosystem. I came forward with a waste management plan through which we can manage this waste and create livelihood at our local level by giving jobs to locals, mostly WOMEN. Bio waste can be converted into Hydrolysate, Crab feed, and compost. Plastic waste( wrappers) can be converted into bags, pouches, etc., and it will generate livelihood.
6	Plastic to Pavers	Agnel Institute of Technology and Design	Managing e-waste: we conceptualised and built machinery that is easy to fabricate. Built with the simplest of technologies, it uses waste plastic that is procured, segregated, cleaned, and readied for the production of pavers. These pavers use minimal and basic raw materials and thus generate a low cost of production. Found to be cheaper than the ones currently on the market, these pavers aren’t only cost-effective but also aid in reducing plastic pollution. Thus, this relatively sustainable process that puts the disposed of plastic to better and practical use, can be a game-changer with further research and development.
7	Apshisht	CSIR- National Environmental Engineering Research Institute	Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is a major concern for most of ULBs in India due to increasing waste generation (mainly biodegradable waste 35-65%) and the lack of efficient processing and disposal, which lead to serious health problems and environmental degradation. Our solution can help municipalities, social entrepreneurs, and farmers. Post-treatment is the only method for enhancing the quality of that compost that may be used in agriculture. Our approach is based on co-composting of immature compost and bio-solids with rotary drum composting followed by vermicomposting to get the valuable product. Its high organic matter content reduced dependability on chemical fertilizers. The innovation of our technology has three components 1: Automated Collection System 2: Implementation of Co-composting 3: Marketing of post-processed compost.
8	Jan Kalyan Abhiyan	Family Health India	Promotion of menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls in the age group of 10-19 years in Hariram Ka Pura. This project will contribute to the fulfilment of the rights of girls to attend schools without interruption. The team will conduct a school-based campaign in 8 schools in Hariram Ka Pura and Malanpur for adolescent girls and boys, and teachers to make them aware of Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM).
9	KP	Family Health India	Water sanitation and Hygiene: Youth ki Awaz project is an initiative supported by CSR of Godrej Consumer Products Limited in collaboration with Family Health India to utilize the energy and passion of the youth to bring positive changes in Water sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) outcomes in Bhind Madhya Pradesh. The project focuses on youth to improve and promote their social status. Objectives: 1. To ensure segregation of solid waste at household level. 2. To strengthen the mechanism of safe disposal of solid waste. 3. To build the capacities of youth on solid waste management. 4. To reduce plastic on a daily basis and prepare them to become Youth leaders for bringing changes to their communities through their active engagement in WASH activities, strengthen the leadership, participation in decision making process, Skills development, and capacity development, and capacity building program.

Was it a nail-biting finish? Watch out for this space in our next newsletter to know our jury members and winners.

SafeCircle

SafeCircle is a safe listening circle for survivors of violence and trauma to find support. The space is facilitated by our CEO Supreet K Singh and through these listening circles, survivors have found a community of support and solidarity where they share strategies and learn from each other’s experiences. Since May 2020 we have been providing psychosocial support to over 25 survivors.
Read on to learn more about SafeCircle here.

If you would like to attend a SafeCircle please visit here.

We cordially invite you to join these sessions. Once you register, our team will reach out to you with details such as the time and date of the SafeCircle.

Changemaker of the Month – Anagh

“Defending Human Rights with an academic touch and through social intervention – the blend of the two is the need of the hour for the emancipation of the marginalized. This fellowship has opened the door for me as a budding researcher and a human rights defender.”

– Anagh, Thrissur, Kerala

Key points to understand through data – November

Reports collected from India in the month of November 2022

Click here to see the Safecity Data Dashboards.

Safecity Reporting Platform

Safecity is a platform as a service product that empowers communities, police and city government to prevent violence in public and private spaces. Our technology stack collects and analyses crowdsourced, anonymous reports of violent crime, identifying patterns and key insights. This data enables citizens, researchers and policymakers to create safer spaces by:

Increasing awareness, transparency and public accountability
Improving policy and tactical precision with data-led insights
Optimising budgets to more effectively allocate resources

Get in touch if you want to be a Safecity partner.

Report an incident on Safecity Platform

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Upcoming Workshops and Events

Alumni Circles
Rainbow Circles
25th November 2022 – 10th December 2022: 16 Days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence
Domestic Violence Workshops in collaboration with the Australian Consulate
Queer for Others Advocacy Campaign
Safety Audit of Public Transports in Delhi/NCR
Youth Innovation Challenge Final Event
Sage – BRAVE Movement Roundtables
Feminist Foreign Policy with the Consulate Generals of Canada, France, Germany and Spain
Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) Fellowship
Safecity Twitter Chats & Spaces

Ongoing Projects

Queer Hifazat Project
Rainbow Circles
Queer for Others Campaign – Being implemented by RDF in partnership with Swechha, supported by the U.S. Embassy India
Community Health Workers Trainings with HDFC Bank – Parivartan
Community Health Workers Trainings with City of Stuttgart
Mentoring on Personal Leadership with Young Girls and Women with Adventures of the Mind
Stand Up Against Street Harassment with L’Oreal Paris India and Right To Be
Responsible Tourism Programme with SIDBI
My Body, My Rights – Sage BRAVE Movement
Youth Innovation Challenge 2022
Alumni Circles