On Tuesday, the Greater Chennai Corporation initiated a campaign against gender-based violence on their Twitter feed as part of the 16 days of activism. This annual international campaign calls for an end to violence against women and girls, which was launched on November 25 to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, will be on till December 10 which will be observed as Human Rights Day.
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The Corporation launched the campaign with an image of Mayor R. Priya and urged the public to respond with the tagline “Say NO to gender-based violence”. However, many users have questioned the effectiveness of an online campaign with some saying that lighting up Ripon Building is simply not enough to address the situation.
“The campaign creates awareness on the issue and is a conversation starter as it prompts the public to speak about violence against women, girls and other vulnerable groups,” said Deputy Commissioner (Education) D. Sneha. She added that city level representatives and officials standing up for an important global campaign calls for collective solidarity and is a way to make people think actively about the issues of gender.
The Gender Lab has called a tender for a city-wide perception study which seeks to understand which spaces women perceive as safe. The results of this study, which will be launched in mid-December, will be compared with real-time police data to ground the study in reality.
The Lab has issued design specifications to the parks and the bus route roads departments such as including more benches in parks or providing for more lights in bus stops.