Have you ever sat down and wondered if your neighborhood is safe enough for people, especially women and children, to walk around unperturbed at any hour of the day? If you have and the answer is ‘no,’ have you done anything about it? We at IWB, are on a pursuit to not just raise all such questions but to find the appropriate answers and solutions to them through our ‘Vocal Streets‘ campaign.
A part of our campaign is to reclaim the streets of Jaipur through the power of music rendered by our star singer Komal in collaboration with the amazing Jaipur Police band. Here take a look at the first teaser of the cover song ‘Confident’ by Demi Lovato released by IWB on Thursday:
As it must be quiet apparent by now, we are slowly but persistently marching our ways to our goals i.e. to reclaim the streets of Jaipur for its womenfolk. Adding to our efforts towards the same pursuit, we conducted a Twitter dialogue with SafecityIndia on Friday and engaged in an in-depth discussion on the topic of street harassment and the ways to combat it.
Safecity is working towards making cities safer by encouraging equal access to public spaces for everyone especially women, employing the use of crowdsourced data and technology.
“We are creating a new data set which currently does not exist. Perception of the police’s insensitivity, as well as cultural backlash, deters people from reporting. They feel more comfortable using our platform and this is seen by reports from over 20 years ago. By representing the information thus collected on a map as hotspots, we are moving the focus away from the “victim” to the location and people can view the issue with a different lens,” reads the About section of their website.
Launched on December 26, 2012, the Safecity app lets women share stories of harassment and abuse they face in public spaces, to report “what happened, where it happened and when it happened”. The information collected is then translated onto a map in the form of hotspots or location-based trends.
Elsa D’Silva in a conversation that she had with IWB earlier this year talked about the app and its purpose in detail. She said, “My main aim was, and is, to encourage people, be it, men or women, to share their stories and bridge the gap that is created by incidents not reported at all which gives us a fake sense of security that a particular place is ‘safe’ just because there have been no reported incidents.”
“We strongly believe that when we teach our children to respect equality, consent, and boundaries, to value other lives as our own, we will be building a future that will be devoid of violence against women and girls. If we bring up our boys with such values, our girls will not need saving,” says Supreet K Singh, the Director & COO of Red Dot Foundation- Safecity.
Through the Twiter dialogue, we got into an expansive chat on the general attitude pertaining to street harassment, the right ways to respond to it, the process of reporting such instances and much more. Here are the excerpts:
How to remove the “casualness, lightheartedness, it’s just catcalls and not rape” attitude
The correct way to respond to street harassment
On targetting the issue through Bollywood
Removing the fear, shame, and stigma attached to going to a police station and reporting cases of harassment
How to encourage women to step up for themselves
Defining a safe environment for reporting
On sensitizing the Police while taking a complaint report
How to make reporting more inclusive?
Does gender define the gravity of the crime?
What “Reclaim” denotes for safe streets?
Au Small Finance Bank, IWB’s Partner for the campaign ‘Vocal Streets,’ is marching ahead to make streets vocal about women’s dreams and reclaim these spaces for their businesses. Hence, Street Safety is our right, and we will own it! Check out its street-smart and safe financial services at www.aubank.in