Safecity Monthly Updates – October 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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Laadli Media & Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity

Laadli, the media advocacy campaign of Population First, has been giving awards to gender sensitive journalism. It is supported by UNFPA & Norwegian Embassy, New Delhi.

It gives us great pleasure to announce that ElsaMarie D’Silva, Founder, Red Dot Foundation is once again the proud recipient of the Laadli Award in the western region of the country for her stellar contribution on the web by way of the beliEVE podcast series in collaboration with Awaaz.com. beliEVE has won the Laadli award for two consecutive years. Elsa enjoys amplifying the voices of exceptional women.

beliEVE Season 2 celebrates the power of women who have broken boundaries and rewritten the script for what it means to be successful, by choosing alternative professions and championing causes to inspire the mainstream. 

Hear the stories of nuclear scientists, sustainable fashion designers, gender inclusivity activists, cave divers, environmentalists, social workers and more here.

 

Safety Champion

The Safety Champion Campaign is a project where we mobilize youth volunteers to speak to create awareness about gender-based violence and sexual harassment and help makes spaces safer through the use of the Safecity platform.

The youth attend an orientation where we explain the types, and impacts of GBV & SH and how Safecity works. They then facilitate reporting on the Safecity platform. 

Daan Utsav 

 

During DaanUtsav, we mobilized volunteers to spread awareness of the Safecity platform in its endeavour to make both private and public spaces safe for everyone.

Red Dot Foundation conducted an online orientation program and the volunteers reached out to at least 10 people in their family/community/ neighbourhood to share the Safecity platform and introduce the Safecity app and capture their experiences/stories of harassment or get them to fill their experiences anonymously.

Safety Champion Campaign with Youth for Seva and Save the Children

The Safety Champion Campaign is a programme that aims to provide young leaders with the knowledge, abilities, and experience necessary to promote safe areas. The campaign was implemented among college students in India.

A workshop on making public spaces safer was attended by 100 students from Telangana’s St. Anns College. Nearly 30 individuals have volunteered to serve as safety ambassadors, who will educate the public on sexual harassment and gender-based violence and encourage them to file reports.

 

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

The Responsible Community Based Tourism – Life Skill Program for Women Entrepreneurs of Goa event started with coffee and a meet and greet. 13 women had attended the event. The women had brought in their products to display and were enthusiastic about talking about their products.

The General Manager of NABARD, Dr. Milind Bhirud, spoke to the women about the different government schemes available to them to upscale their business. He also advised them on marketing strategies and how to further upscale their existing business. 

Mr. Jack Sukheja – the Chairman of the GCCI Tourism committee and the Owner of Panjim Inn was also present at the event. Panjim Inn is the First hotel in Goa that has tied up with Placeexplore app where the products and services of the women entrepreneurs would be featured and available to the guests visiting Panjim Inn.

Ms. Rucha Godase, a young participant at the event yesterday, shared how Instagram has augmented their business and helped the other women to create their instagram accounts. 

The event ended with a late lunch and the women were informed that there would be one last in-person event: their graduation where each of them would receive a certificate for completing this program.

The 2nd mid-session event was held on  8th October 2022. 17 women attended the same.

The women were taught to price their products and also to understand the importance of customer retention.

Ms. Mahalasa Kini, a resource person from Udupi, spoke on social leadership & confidence building.

Social media marketing, poster making and usage of the Canva app was shared by Hardik. The women enthusiastically discussed their training experiences.

‘We observed a vast change in the confidence level of these women.  From hesitating to introducing themselves in the first session to voluntarily coming forth to participate in this event.’  The women appreciated the social media session where they were able to use their smartphones to design posters which would help them in promoting their business.

 

She Is – Visit to BARC

Responding to Dr. Archana Sharma’s (Dr. Archana Sharma is Group Director of Beam Technology Development Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai) gracious invitation, 5 other women featured in the recently published book ‘She Is—Women in STEAM’, Prof. Vandana Nanal, [Senior Professor at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, and Joint Chair of BARC-TIFR Pelletron Linac Facility (PLF)], Dr. Chanda Nimbkar, (Director, Animal Husbandry Divn., Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute), Vanmala Jain, (Owner and Founder at Kuprkabi Ceramic Design Studio, Mumbai), Karon Shaiva, (Chief Impact Officer & MD, Idobro Impact Solutions and Managing Trustee, RISE Infinity Foundation, Mumbai.), and Cheryl Pereira, (Co-Founder of Cheryl’s Cosmeceuticals, and Director of Take Charge Mentorship, Mumbai). along with 20 young girl (science) students from Save the Children and Reality Gives organisations with their representatives and the co-authors of the book, ElsaMarie D’Silva and Supreet K Singh, spent an enlightening afternoon on a well guided short tour of the high security, beautifully landscaped, breathtaking 2,000 odd acres of BARC, well hidden from the bustling city of Mumbai.

After a brief introduction of India’s premier nuclear research facility by Dr. A.K. Tyagi, he was presented with a copy of the book ‘She Is—Women in STEAM’.  The stories of the 6 women were highlighted by short snippets being read out from the book and later we were each gifted a book, ‘Non-Power Applications of Nuclear Technologies’ written by A.K. Tyagi & A.K. Mohanty, followed by the tour. Dr. Archana Sharma urged the guests to popularize BARC’s societal benefits in the field of medical, agriculture and environment solutions. The students were encouraged to download the book. One of the highlights of the tour was learning about Gamma Irradiation for preservation of food which appealed to the young science enthusiasts. 

It was an afternoon well spent, with prized memories etched in our minds, as no photography is permitted. 

 

Here’s what the others have to say about their visit –

“The visit to BARC on 27 October 2022 was one of the memorable days in my life. It was like visiting a temple to high science and made me feel proud of India. The visit to the sprawling green campus and the legendary Dhruv reactor was awe-inspiring. A lovely bonus was meeting Elsa, Supreet and Sheila, the creators of ‘She Is’, my fellow women in STEAM and the clever school girls invited for the visit.” – Dr. Chanda Nimbkar Director, Animal Husbandry Divn., Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute

“Truly privileged and inspired!! So wonderful to see our achievements and the peaceful use of nuclear energies for societal good … eye opening visit for sure! Interacting with the students was another plus … so full of enthusiasm and potential! And above all meeting the other amazing women from the book!!” – Karon Shaiva, Chief Impact Officer & MD, Idobro Impact Solutions and Managing Trustee, RISE Infinity Foundation, Mumbai.

“Yesterday 28/10/2022 we visited BARC. There was the program organised by Red Dot Foundation and they had published a  book called ‘She Is—Women in STEAM’. Some scientists from the book attended and we read about their struggles. They provided lunch and snacks and they shared their struggle with us. A.K. Tyagi, researcher of BARC shared very nicely how Homi Bhabha started the research centre and what’s the condition till now. I got some positive reply from the scientist that I read nicely with confidence about Karon Shaiva  which is included in that book. She was even with us at that time. She is a very jolly and inspirable person.I personally experienced that because we were with her the full day. BARC employees took us in their own bus to visit the dome, Cyrus, dhruva reactor, and the food area. Their researcher employee explained very nicely. We asked them questions and we got positive answers.  We were at BARC colony area, it was full of greenery, we thought that we felt like we were in heaven. It was a great experience. Thank you.” – Seema Yallappa Kunchikorve, Student (Reality Gives)

“First of all, thank you so much for the planning and coordination during today’s visit at the BARC. All adolescent girls were thrilled to visit the BARC for the first time and enjoyed this experience. During this visit, we came to know so many great things achieved by the scientists at the BARC, especially the contribution in achieving the goal of food safety and food security.

We are also pleasantly surprised to see such a well-constructed infrastructure with beautiful scenery over a huge landscape that too in our very own Mumbai. 

Overall, it was a refreshing experience which has surely put a lasting impact on aspirations of the adolescents. Hopefully, in future, the inspiration would lead some of them to achieve greater heights in their careers.” – Amit Nalawade, Coordinator – Field Reporting & Documentation | Maharashtra (Save the Children)

 

Alumni Circles

In partnership with the U.S. Consulate, we are building a cohort of U.S. Department of State Exchange Alumni who will engage in one of four specific thematic areas:

• Education
• Women’s Empowerment
• Climate Change
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility

These groups will work together over the next few months to –

• Create a stronger network of people who are connected to each other and understand synergies in their work for possible collaboration in the future.
• Get new perspectives through sharing and discussion amongst the alumni and thematic experts and the advocacy campaign planned.
• Encourage peer mentoring.

 

Stand Up Against Street Harassment

In its efforts to educate the public about street harassment in public areas and sensitise and teach local communities how to intervene in such a circumstance, RDF has teamed with L’Oreal Paris India and Right To Be.

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 have trained more than 6000 people in Maharashtra from June – to date. 

 

Here is some feedback:

“The speaker, Ms Pragati Vaishya, Program & Outreach Officer, Red Dot Foundation conducted a very informative session educating the students that bystander intervention is the recognition of a potentially harmful situation or interaction and the decision to respond in a way that could positively affect the outcome.” – Dr. Sabir Sayed, Anjuman-I-Islam’s, BJHAH College of Home Science, Csmt, (affiliated to SNDT Women’s University).

“It was very helpful and reminded us of what is happening in society and how we can protect ourselves when we don’t know what to do.” – Grace, Sophia College Mumbai.

“Made me learn ways to tackle street harassment quite easily.” – Anchal, Pillai College Mumbai.

 

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 –  Vishwas Tambe 

“This was the first time that I took help from stakeholders to work for LGBTQI people. Until now I had been struggling alone. I connected with lawyers, senior social workers etc., who helped me to draft a petition. Queer for Others program has broadened my zone of thinking and working. I would request RDF to keep continuing this program and reach more people as this is very much required. The campaigners which RDF has created via this program have potential to make big changes in society.”

 

Key points to understand through data – October

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.

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Upcoming Workshops and Events

• Alumni 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
• Youth Innovation Challenge Masterclasses 
• Sage – BRAVE Movement Roundtables 
• 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