The Guardian’s Amy Fleming asks What would a city that is safe for women look like?
“Sexual violence has rarely been so high on the news agenda. Since allegations against the movie producer Harvey Weinstein started to emerge in October last year, the global problem has finally become a mainstream issue. The United Nations has estimated that one in three women have experienced physical or sexual violence, with 120 million girls around the world having been forced into sex acts.
“The repercussions go beyond the physical and psychological toll on individuals who have been attacked. Harassment and fear of violence can impede free movement of girls and women and stop them reaching their full potential, both socially and economically. ‘If women feel afraid,’ says Laura Somoggi, who manages the annual Womanity award for the prevention of violence against women, ‘it could undermine their ability to work or go to school or university which affects their empowerment, their rights.’ Fear of attack is a bar to women escaping poverty.”
Amy goes on to write about “sprawling metropolises” across the world and “Part of the problem is that cities have been ‘planned by men, for men’” leading Kalpana Viswanath to co-founded an app called SafetiPin: “an app that aims to help women stay safe by letting users rate streets and areas for safety criteria such as lighting, visibility, people density, gender diversity, security and transportation. It also aggregates safety data, partly provided by its users, for use by local government and planners. SafetiPin now has 51,000 points of data for Delhi alone, and offers users “safest routes”, helping them navigate the city with less risk.
“Another function of the app allows women to have someone they trust track their journey. “We find a lot of women are able to travel at night using these two features,” says Viswanath. “It gives them confidence to travel around the city.” And the more women venture out, the busier – and safer – the streets become.”
It’s a free app that can be used anywhere.
Amanda Erickson from the Washington Post reports on ‘Women’s lives, behind the data’—“Low rates of sexual violence are masking serious dangers to women.”
“...one of the major challenges in understanding the global landscape of sexual violence: Scholars believe there is a significant gap between the number of crimes committed and the number of allegations reported to authorities — and another one between the number of allegations and actual prosecutions.”
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