Women, Fight Back! You Are Not Alone

Hindol Sengupta

He is the man behind a Delhi-based voluntary organisation which is working towards curbing crime against women. The organisation has come up with a unique mobile application, which has been developed in partnership with a software firm.

The Sip of Life Moderator, Amit Roy talks to Hindol Sengupta, who happens to be one of the two journalists who started the organisation, which will be launching this GPS-enabled application on December 21, which consults the database on the safety perception in the area and also issues a warning to the user in an unsafe zone. An SOS message is sent out when one is in trouble.

SOL: We would like to know how both of you being journalists think of coming up with the Whypoll Trust and when was it formed?

Hindol: Whypoll came from a winter morning conversation between me and Shweta Punj when we were both working as television journalists about two years ago. The question we were grappling with was, for all of the well-deserved bouquets that India wins for being the world’s largest democracy, why is it that for most Indians democracy remains that one act of voting once in five years? Why does the average Indian not feel that the integrated to his or her government, why is the state so remote and so unresponsive for most Indians? So the vision of Whypoll was to create an institution that spends its time researching public issues and tries to find solutions in technology.

The question was, why poll if you are not integrated to the system of governance at a day to day level? What greater value does your vote bring then? That’s how the name came into being.

One of the key people who encouraged the start of Whypoll was a man called Salil Shetty, at that time the global head of the United Nations Millennium Campaign, which manages the Millennium Development Goals Campaign. Salil is no longer with the Millennium Campaign but it was a chance encounter with him after he was on a TV show being anchored by Hindol Sengupta which gave Whypoll an additional push.

For the first two years of its lifespan, Whypoll concentrated on doing three specific projects with the UN Millennium Campaign which we believed aided in taking the Millennium Campaign and the idea of fighting poverty onto platforms which were very different from what had happened in the past.

SOL: What have been your activities so far to make Delhi a safer place?

Hindol: Many women want to remain anonymous. This platform solves both problems. What happens when you submit a report? You remain anonymous but the incident and the location gets reported. And as more and more people report incidents, the public database will grow and Whypoll will keep putting all the incidents on the map without giving out the identity of the people who have reported it.

This map is a permanent, public database and as the numbers and places keep growing – there will be enormous public pressure because we will keep releasing the data gathered to the public and that will keep building pressure. And these will be numbers generated from the people, not just police records.

So our idea is a three-pronged strategy to tackle harassment against Delhi women:

-      You can just use the regularly updated map to track unsafe places – especially helpful for tourists.

-      If you face harassment, and wish to remain anonymous and do not wish to go to the police, you can just report the incident on the harassment reporting portal. And all the data will be placed on the map to pinpoint problem areas while the person submitting the report will remain anonymous.

-      The app is the third plank which helps you send out an SOS in case of an emergency that immediately informs friends and family.

SOL: What was the outcome of your recently conducted survey on unsafe areas in the city?

Hindol: We researched for about three months and roughly about 50,000 people to come up with the 100 most unsafe places in Delhi map which can be used for free by anyone who wishes to on www.whypoll.org. Also, our harassment reporting platform is free to use for anyone who chooses to. See the logic is very simple. Unless there is a major case of sexual assault, most cases of harassment are not reported to police in India.

SOL: Everybody is excited to know about the new app called Fight-Back. What is it all about and when will it be launched?

Hindol: Originally our idea was to do a signature campaign – and then just deposit it, as is often done to the required authourities, to give one more push.

But then, as we went out and spoke to hundreds and hundreds of people, our idea evolved and we realised just sending signatures means little. We asked ourselves, what will really change on the ground? We felt we need to go one step further. Create tools. Tools that people can use. When feeling unsafe women can simply push a button on their phones that will send up to five people, including police, a text message with their GPS location. The app, called “Fight Back,” will also notify friends and family via Facebook and Twitter.

So that’s what we did and were overwhelmed by the number of people who encouraged us.  Now, we are clear that it would be far more useful to go to the authorities with more evolved data gathered from our technologies rather than just a signature campaign. We need to go to them with more evolved feedback from the people. Let the app be launched and let people use the map, the reporting site and the app – and then we will send a more evolved report to the authorities.

So yes, actually, the campaign has only just begun. The app will be taken across India in English and then in other languages soon.

SOL: Is there any way it can be linked to the police stations as well?

Hindol: We have had a few very good meetings with the Delhi Police and it is a process that we are taking forward with them. It cannot happen overnight but it is something we are working towards.

SOL: What will be the price of this app and which kind of phones will it work with? : Is such kind of an app available for any other city in the world?

Hindol: It will cost Rs. 100 for one year. We wanted to make it as cheap as possible and yet have a very tiny fee (Rs. 100 for a year amounts to less than Rs. 10 in a month) so that there is a notion of choice. When people choose to buy something, they use it more often and frequently.

It will work on all platforms apart from iPhone to start with but will rapidly and constantly scale up to many models and many phones and all platforms. No other city is offering such a kind of app. Not that we are aware of.

SOL: Will the app be in English only or you plan introducing it in other languages as well?

Hindol: To start with English will be the only language, but in the long run, we are looking at other languages as well but what they will be is a research in progress.

SOL: Will the application only be limited to women in Delhi? Will it be only available on smart phones?

Hindol: As with all app launches, Whypoll and CanvasM will have a phased launch of Fight Back starting with smart phones across platforms and then move expansively to other devices.

The app will first be launched in Delhi and then move rapidly across the nation, as will the map and the harassment reporting platform.

SOL: What do you suggest needs to be done to make the national capital a safer place?

Hindol: We fundamentally believe one basic thing – governance in all aspects would become better with greater citizen feedback and if there is far more effective system where citizens of the capital constantly report and complain on the issues of the capital and that reporting is sent on a strategic way constantly shared with police and authourities, then this system with time will push towards cleaning up and making the capital better.

The mobile application can be downloaded here from December 21 noon onwards http://www.fightbackmobile.com/welcome