Sexual harassment in India is a complex social issue. Seven out of ten women have experienced sexual harassment, but ninety per cent of those cases are not reported, according to an online survey done by a national Indian newspaper. This in turn contributes to a big gap of data on the issue, rendering it invisible and thereby deepening the silence around it.
How to break this vicious cycle?
Convers[t]ation is an electronic panel, which could be installed in public transport hubs where women can quickly and anonymously report cases of sexual harassment. The data collected by the panel will flow into a transparent repository, from where it will be fed back via summary reports to institutions and via data visualizations on a big public screen to the general public.
Thus, we aim to facilitate reporting, and collect data on sexual harassment. By encouraging women to share their experience, we hope to spark conversations around it and break the stifling silences that surround this critical issue.
Project Coach: Sruthi Krishnan at Fields of View, Bangalore
Contact person MediaLAB: Loes Bogers