New Delhi, Nov 19 (UNI) Union Minister for Women and Child Development (WCD) and Textiles Smriti
Zubin Irani on Tuesday underlined the urgent need for creating "Safe Homes and Safe Neighbourhoods"
to protect abused women and children.
Delivering the keynote address in the 2nd edition of South Asia Safety Summit organised by the Ministry
of WCD and Facebook, she said "there is urgent need to ensure safety for women and children within
their homes and create safe neighbourhoods in order to protect women and children against violence
and abuse."
Ms Irani quoted from NCRB data of 2017 saying that of the three lakh crimes registered against women, these
were predominantly committed by husbands and relatives so the challenges to women and children
safety issues lay closer to home.
As per the NCRB data, 42 per cent of men justified domestic violence and 62 per cent of women supported
domestic violence.

The South Asia Safety Summit is being organised to highlight the issue of safety while individuals and
communities are connected on the digital platform. Participants from 125 civil society organisations,
feminist groups, child safety experts, academics focused on gender and mass communication, safety
practitioners, mental health and suicide prevention organisations, disabilities rights groups, and partners
who have expertise in running digital literacy programmes and creating tools for social-emotional development
of young people are attending the summit.
Apart from Indian delegates, there were representatives from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan.
In her keynote address, the WCD minister highlighted the steps taken by the ministry like one-stop
centres to service the needs of women in the locality and informed the gathering that 10 one-stop centres
open every month across the country and by the year-end every district would have an operational
one-stop centre.
"Every district of India will have anti-trafficking units which is the first ever such initiative undertaken by
the Government. To make police stations more accessible for women and children Women’s help desks
are being set up in each police station across the county as a police station is the first place that a
woman reaches whenever she faces a threat to her security and life. Along with Ministry of Home Affairs
the WCD Ministry has launched the cyber-crime portal and the ministry is helping to strengthen this
portal so that women are able to lodge complaints of cyber bullying, online shaming and online
threats," she told the delegates.
The minister further informed that the WCD Ministry was digitally listing all sex offenders in India so
that whenever background checks of employees needed to be conducted its database would enable
employers.
The minister also requested digital platforms to keep linguistic and cultural aspects and special attention
to handicapped women and children who needed additional support on digital platforms if holistic policy
was to be put in place.
During the summit, Ms Irani launched “We Think Digital” website, an online education portal with
interactive tutorials aimed at helping people think critically and share thoughtfully online. The topics
covered include privacy, safety, security, digital discourse and knowing your digital footprint.
“We Think Digital” is a four-part course designed to empower students with the knowledge to
use, understand, evaluate, communicate and create with digital technologies and outlined the digital
citizen’s rights and responsibilities, communicate respectfully and be responsible digital citizens in the
online world. The programme will focus on online safety, privacy and misinformation.
UNI SD ADG 1856