New Delhi: 1M1B (One Million for One Billion), has launched the Digital Nagrik Campaign, supported by Meta Platform Inc, to create awareness about women’s safety online, aligning the Digital Nagrik campaign with this year’s International Women’s Day. The theme of International Women’s Day is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”. 1M1B is hosting various online dialogues and panels with women influencers and teachers on March 7 and 8 with an aim to advance equality in the digital sphere and empower women online.
Launched on Safer Internet Day, the Digital Nagrik Campaign has witnessed huge support from women and girls from across India. Women and girls have taken more than 60% of the 15,000 pledges taken digitally so far. Digital Nagrik is a social media campaign and a pledge that aims to foster a culture of digital safety and create a safer and more inclusive internet space. This campaign aligns with the central government’s objective to ensure an open, safe, trusted and accountable internet for its citizens.
On International Women’s Day, a panel will be hosted on Twitter that will focus on discussions around fostering a culture of digital safety and promoting a secure and inclusive online environment. Influencers will highlight the digital gap between genders, the importance of digital education, and the urgency to combat online harassment of women and girls.
The Digital Nagrik Campaign is led by CBSE teachers and academic advisors and managed by 1M1B, India’s largest organization that is developing and mobilizing India’s future-ready technology workforce. Digital Nagrik will develop a community of responsible digital citizens who are aware of their digital rights and obligations. 1M1B has already engaged over 4 lakh teachers and 11 lakh students on digital citizenship, well-being, and cyber safety, and plans to engage over 1 million people through Digital Nagrik pledge this year.
Digital Nagrik – Time to create a safer cyberspace for Women and girls
According to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau, the number of cybercrime incidents in 2021 has increased by 18.4% since 2019, but the number of cases involving women has increased at a much steeper 28.4% rate. Data showed that 10,730 incidents, or 20.2% of the 52,974 incidents reported in 2021, were reported as crimes against women. Cyberbullying, cyberstalking, defamation, morphing, and the creation of false profiles are the most common cyber-crimes committed against women. Among the top 3 cities to receive complaints around these crimes were New Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai, with school and college students forming 60% of these complaints.
The Digital Nagrik campaign will raise awareness about the prevalence of online harassment against women and provide tips and resources to empower women and girls to combat it.
Manav Subodh- Founder of 1M1B said that “In a world that depends more and more on technology, criminal activity related to electronic and internet platforms tends to rise, with women becoming the easiest victims. To punish such criminals with severe measures, the law must go above and beyond. There are advantages and disadvantages to technology, which can be used for good or bad. Increased cybercrime awareness and knowledge, privacy protection, and legal support are necessary to combat cybercrime against women. At an astounding 85%, women and girls are more likely than men to experience online abuse. The Digital Nagrik campaign aims to increase awareness of the prevalence of harassment of women online and equip women and girls with the tools they need to stop it. The Digital Nagrik campaign is part of the Digital Citizenship curriculum created by teachers and introduced by 1M1B in CBSE schools supported by Meta. It’s important to teach about online safety at an early age, right in the high schools so that today’s youth are made aware. We can see that 60% of pledges are signed by females, which shows the need for awareness and education dialogues on this issue.”
The Digital Nagrik pledge has been available for signing at www.iamdigitalnagrik.com since February 7, 2023.
