Over the past decade, there has been a surge in the number of cybercrimes in India. A majority of these crimes targeted women. In this digital age, where everything is connected through the internet and so much dependence on technology, it is important to know how to protect yourself from online fraud, cyber bullying etc. In an attempt towards protecting citizens from cyber crimes, NCW came up with the Digital Shakti Campaign that aims at spreading awareness about cyber safety & cyber security.

What is Digital Shakti Campaign?

Digital Shakti started in June 2018 to help women across the nation to raise the awareness level on the digital front, to build resilience, and fight cyber-crime in the most effective ways. The pan-India project aims to digitally empower women and girls to be digitally skilled and aware of the importance of standing up to illegal/inappropriate online behaviour. It has been launched in collaboration with CyberPeace Foundation and Meta.

During the third phase, which was launched in March 2021, of this initiative, a Resource Center was developed to provide information about available avenues for reporting in case a woman becomes a victim of a cyber crime.

Till date, over 3 lakh women across India have been made aware of cyber safety measures, reporting and redressal mechanisms, data privacy and technology usage through this initiative by NCW. Also, it has been accelerating the digital participation of women and girls by training them to use technology to their advantage and to keep themselves safe online.

The third phase of the initiative, which was launched in March last year in Leh, worked on developing a Resource Center to provide information about available avenues for reporting in case a woman becomes a victim of a cybercrime. It apprised them on various aspects of online safety and digital literacy.

The agendas in Phase 4

Recently, National Commission for Women (NCW) launched the fourth phase of the Digital Shakti Campaign. Under the fourth phase, the project commits to creating safe digital spaces for women and girls. The project continues to contribute towards the larger goal of fighting cyber violence against women and girls.

The launch was followed by an interactive panel discussion on "Safe Spaces Online Combatting Cyber-enabled Human Trafficking & Combatting Other forms of Online Violence" in order to provide keen opinions from experts from the Industry, Government, and Academia. As well as Industry, Government, and Academia to address the issue of online women safety from all tangents and provide a whole approach to ensure better women safety online.

Key Takeaways

An excellent opportunity for those looking forward to upgrading their knowledge in this field and equipping themselves, the campaign is one of a kind. It meets the need of the hour to fill the digital knowledge gap among the major group of the population. If you wish to access their resources, you can go through their website and study the materials available in the form of PDFs & videos. Additionally, one can also take assessments like personality tests & IQ tests through their platform.

References

- https://www.digitalshakti.org/about-campaign/

- https://zeenews.india.com/india/digital-shakti-4-0-ncw-launches-pan-india-project-for-making-women-digitally-skilled-2536413.html

- https://currentaffairs.adda247.com/national-commission-for-women-launched-digital-shakti-4-0/