Some products such as clothes that give the attacker an electric shock are available in the market but they do not address fears of sexual violence that frequently assail women in cities. It is to tackle these fears that a team of designers is developing a website called, 'I stood up to violence', where women can SMS their accounts of how they had fought and beaten back rapists. The website will be dedicated to such accounts of bravery which, it is hoped, will give courage to women living in cities.
The 'UnBox Labs-2014' workshop that was held at the National Institute of Design (NID) recently, saw 35 creative practitioners and researchers from India and the UK work together on the theme of 'Future Cities'. One particular team, consisting of Prof Lorraine Gamman, Aliya Curmally, Louise Armstrong, Virken Dhar and Ben Eaton along with Prof Praveen Navar, decided to create an online platform for women with positive stories about the fight against crime.
"We recently saw a performance by Mallika Sarabhai on the theme of rape. It reminded us of female powerhouses of active citizenship like Kiran Bedi and campaigns like 'Pink Saris' and 'We are Fearless'. We then developed a survival-themed tech-project for women that can be accessed on mobile phones," said Prof Gamman, a leading expert on design against crime.
"It is an SMS system linked to an online platform where women, who have faced violence, may anonymously text their first-hand tales of courage and survival. This will also serve as a support system for others. We will launch it in basic form to test and then expand it to voice activation so that illiterate women can also tell their stories," said Eaton, a creative and interactive artist managing the technology front.
The 'UnBox Labs-2014' workshop that was held at the National Institute of Design (NID) recently, saw 35 creative practitioners and researchers from India and the UK work together on the theme of 'Future Cities'. One particular team, consisting of Prof Lorraine Gamman, Aliya Curmally, Louise Armstrong, Virken Dhar and Ben Eaton along with Prof Praveen Navar, decided to create an online platform for women with positive stories about the fight against crime.
"We recently saw a performance by Mallika Sarabhai on the theme of rape. It reminded us of female powerhouses of active citizenship like Kiran Bedi and campaigns like 'Pink Saris' and 'We are Fearless'. We then developed a survival-themed tech-project for women that can be accessed on mobile phones," said Prof Gamman, a leading expert on design against crime.
"It is an SMS system linked to an online platform where women, who have faced violence, may anonymously text their first-hand tales of courage and survival. This will also serve as a support system for others. We will launch it in basic form to test and then expand it to voice activation so that illiterate women can also tell their stories," said Eaton, a creative and interactive artist managing the technology front.
