Safecity Monthly Updates – September 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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Queer Hifazat – Changemaker Fellowship

In collaboration with The QKnit Foundation, RDF has been running the “Queer Hifazat – Changemaker Fellowship”, whose objective is to establish safe spaces for the queer community and to build a network of LGBTQIA+ people across India. This project aims to create a community for queer folx, to provide a safe space for them to share their stories and experiences with others, seek community support, share strategies, and be heard without judgement.

The year-long fellowship began with training the changemakers, and now the trained fellows are spreading awareness about queer rights in their communities and among stakeholders. We have trained 4896 stakeholders under this fellowship program, including young people, parents, faculty from schools and colleges, municipality and police personnel, etc., to sensitise them regarding LGBTQIA+ issues.

Here are some quotes from the fellows –

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.”

Trijit – “My experience of the fellowship has been good so far. The participants were mainly people from the community or their allies. It is upsetting how non-binary people still face difficulties even while using a washroom. There seems to be no provision for gender-neutral washrooms in public spaces like universities.”

My Body, My Rights

Red Dot Foundation is a member of the Brave Movement and its Survivor Advocates Globally Empowered (SAGE) group. Together we have launched an advocacy campaign for prevention of child sexual abuse in India. Through this advocacy campaign, we aim at organising 10 round table discussions with education institutions and non-profit organisations. The outcome of this project focuses on having safe campuses for children, development of a white paper report and a national advocacy campaign to engage youth to advocate for change in their communities.

Our second Round Table was held on 1st September, 2022, with organisations working with child welfare in Delhi. We had 15 participants from the following organisations who participated in this discussion: Teach for India, Jamghat, Nishchay, Join Together, Saans Foundation and Srijan Foundation.

The event kicked off with an introduction by Red Dot Foundation, leading into an impulse talk by Ridhi Bhutani, a Fellow from Teach for India. Ridhi set the tone of the conversation, discussing grassroots issues of intermediaries and responders trying to aid victims of CSA. To further contextualise the moderated discussion, RDF briefed the participants on the laws on CSA, reporting mechanisms according to Indian Legislations, as well as the State Policy and good practices to be followed to create safe spaces for children.

The moderated discussion amongst the participants focused on the following questions:

Impact of CSA
Reporting and redressal mechanisms for victims of CSA
Legal measures and practices that prevent CSA
Awareness to engage more people to commit to the cause of safe spaces for children

All the participants work with children who are impacted by abuse at home, school or in public places. This conversation with them brought about nuanced perspectives.

Following are some key points that the participants focused on:

Destigmatize CSA, and sensitise school faculty, administration, and staff on how to address cases of CSA
Community-based awareness and sensitisation programs
Identifying vulnerable children as a proactive measure
Increase confidence in and efficacy of reporting mechanisms to encourage victims and their families to come forward
Reflect on how our actions might affect a child and altering our behaviour accordingly; creating awareness with parents

Feedback received from our participants:

“I believe the Round Table Conference was extremely inclusive and quite insightful. On a personal level, I could learn from a myriad of responses that were generated from the lobed experiences of different individuals involved in ensuring child safety.

It was great to learn and unlearn the mistakes and best practices that were brought to the table. I also found the PPT on Child Abuse useful, as it was lucid and hands-on.”

– Ridhi Bhutani, Fellow at Teach for India

Global Diplomacy Lab

The Global Diplomacy Lab in partnership with NIUA, The Urban Vision, BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, Consulate General of Germany in Mumbai, was held from 14th september to 17th September, 2022, in Mumbai.

Focusing on SDGs 5 (Gender), 11 (Sustainable Cities) and 17 (Partnerships), the aim of the Lab was for the members to help develop a list of recommendations and good practices for city officials on an inclusive and safer city from a gender and climate adaptation perspective. There were a total of 28 participants which included 19 GDL members, 4 youth participants from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, 3 Red Dot Foundation hosts and 2 representatives from the Global Diplomacy Lab Secretariat.

The lab members interacted with the various faces of the city of Mumbai, including but not limited to the dry waste management systems, the tribal community, the youth, the poverty stricken areas, educational institutions and many more. Following the conversations, the GDL members were engaged in activities in which they were required to consider the urban planning difficulties that Mumbai faced from an inclusive perspective.

The issues were then discussed within various groups and they were asked to come up with solutions for one major issue per group. The solutions were presented to a cohort of people including local government officials, NGO representatives. The cohorts provided feedback on the presentations and urged the presenters to expand on their solutions.

The Global Diplomacy Lab in Mumbai also had a myriad of fun dinners including a Bollywood night. It was a night filled with colour, traditional Indian wear, temporary Indian tattoos (henna/mehendi), delicious food and a lot of dancing!

She Is – Women in STEAM

On September 21, 2022, in collaboration with the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and FICCI FLO, the book launch of ‘She Is—Women in STEAM’ was graciously hosted by the British High Commissioner at his residence in New Delhi.

The Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Prof. Ajay Sood, and the British High Commissioner, Mr. Alex Ellis unveiled the book.

Written by ElsaMarie D’Silva and Supreet K Singh, in celebration of India’s 75th year of Independence, ‘She Is—Women in STEAM’ honors 76 women in STEAM (fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) celebrating gender, leadership, and sustainable development in the fields of STEAM.

This book seeks to make women in the fields of STEAM more visible, celebrate their significant contributions, and acknowledge their journeys which are often fraught with challenges that are gendered.

Prof. Ajay Sood said that through its Science, Technology and Innovation Policy young women in science could find more equitable opportunities and welcoming spaces to perform.

Alex Ellis said that the British Government has supported over 300 young Indian female scientists and innovators in STEM to reach their full potential. He hopes the examples in this book will inspire the next generation of women leaders.

Jayanti Dalmia, President, FICCI FLO said, “Equality for women is progress for all. The ability of women to access, benefit from, develop, and influence these sectors is immense. Our collaborative endeavor has two goals, one is to celebrate and create role models and the other is to harness the potential of this sector to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth of the nation.”

If you wish to order a copy of the book, kindly fill in the form.

Queer for Others – An Intersectional Advocacy Campaign

The Queer for Others initiative was launched in partnership with The Jimme Foundation, in Western India – Maharashtra, MP, Gujarat and Goa. The project’s aim was to work with members of the LGBTQIA+ community to develop advocacy campaigns that examine GBV, CSA, Climate Justice, Dalit, and other minority rights from an intersectional standpoint. This project was implemented by RDF in collaboration with Swechha, supported by the U.S. Embassy India.

People from various states participated and 43 people applied for the event. After filtering the applications, we trained the participants on various intersectional topics and helped them build their campaign ideas. On the final event day, they presented these ideas and 15 participants will now be implementing their campaign.

Check out the recording of the final event here.

Urban Thinkers Campus

In its effort to create safer and inclusive cities, Red Dot Foundation (Safecity) has been hosting UN-Habitat’s Urban Thinkers Campus (UTC) under the World Urban Campaign since 2018. It is a forum to share, learn and define the way forward through individual and joint commitments to implement the New Urban Agenda (NUA).

This year’s Urban Thinkers Campus was held on 28th – 29th September in Mumbai, in partnership with World Urban Campaign, UNICEF, The Urban Vision, Rotary Club of Bombay West, Developmatrix, Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, Swachh Bharat and Her City.. It focussed on jointly developing recommendations for a Feminist City for a Sustainable Future.

The 2-day event brought about varied discussions, innovative ideas and integrations of various backgrounds in workshops and roundtable charrettes, solely towards one goal of building better sustainable future cities. There were youth representatives as well, who voiced their opinions and their hope for and from the city. The topic of inclusion of everyone in the decision-making process was at the heart of the event. We ended both days with a cultural showcase of thought provoking performances that left the participants gasping and enlightened.

Here is some feedback on the event:

“Excellent workshop, extremely well organised and also very participatory processes. Enjoyed it. Wish them all the best.” – Seema

“Great format of engaging with a dynamic group of people. Thank you Red Dot for bringing diverse voices on common ground.”

“The engagement and activities were brilliant. I feel more different types of people from the communities should also be engaged like students, housewives, laymen, etc.” – Sarita Gamare from The Urban Vision.

“Excellent workshop, well organised, superbly designed, equal participation and thoughts communicated by youth from theatre to sticky notes. Young champions are future leaders and here they were planning for their future! That’s Amazing!” – Hemant Acharya from Save the Children.

W7 Statement

Our Founder, ElsaMarie DSilva, is a W7 (Women 7) advisor under Germany’s G7 Presidency. Check out the W7 Statement below that calls on G7 Gender Equality Ministers to take action.

Swedish Alumni Network

The Swedish Institute Alumni are dedicating the month of October to the realisation of SDG16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

Please join us in a virtual session on 29 October, 3-4 pm on Peaceful and Inclusive Societies.

Alumni Circles

In partnership with the U.S. Consulate, we are building a cohort of U.S. Exchange Alumni in four specific thematic areas.

If you are an expert (but not yet an exchange program alumni) in any of the areas mentioned above, below 40 years of age, and want to be a part of the program, please write to us at [email protected].

SafeCircle

SafeCircle is a safe listening circle for survivors of violence and trauma to find support facilitated by our CEO Supreet K Singh. During COVID-19 we have witnessed increasing numbers of cases of intimate partner/ domestic violence and online harassment. Through these listening circles, survivors will find a community of support, share strategies to address and prevent the violence and offer solidarity to peers. 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. Sessions are held every fourth Friday of the month from 3 pm – 5 pm IST.

Changemaker of the Month – Dimple Bharwani

“My heartwarming journey as a Changemaker Fellow with The QKnit and Red Dot Foundation, enabled me to connect with more than 100 people and spread much-needed awareness about gender and sexuality.

Herein, I experienced the joy of learning by doing, and in the process, found the ongoing training and continual support super helpful.

Undertaking the fellowship was my attempt to change the world in any little way I could, but to my surprise, it changed me. Positively. Deeply.”

Key points to understand through data – September

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
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
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