Chennai Mayor R. Priya is launching a social media campaign on violence against women.
On Tuesday, the Greater Chennai Corporation launched a campaign against gender-based violence on its Twitter handle as part of 16 days of activism. The annual international campaign to end violence against women and girls, which began on November 25 on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, will continue until December 10, which will be marked as Human Rights Day.
The corporation launched the campaign with an image of Mayor R. Priya and asked the public to respond with the slogan “Say NO to Gender-Based Violence”. However, many users questioned the effectiveness of the online campaign, with some saying that lighting up the Ripon building was simply not enough to resolve the situation.
“The campaign raises awareness about the issue and is a conversation starter by encouraging the public to talk about violence against women, girls and other vulnerable groups,” said Deputy Commissioner (Education) D. Sneha. She added that representatives and officials at the city level, who are behind the important global campaign, are calling for collective solidarity and this is a way to encourage people to think actively about gender issues.
Gender Lab has published a call for a city-wide perception study that tries to understand which spaces women perceive as safe. The results of this study, which will be published in mid-December, will be compared with real-time police data to ground the study in reality.
The lab issued planning specifications for parks and road sections of bus routes, such as including more park benches or providing more lights at bus stops.