Harassment of women on social media on rise

Complaints from women has gone up from 40% of the total complaints from 2014 to 2019, to 63% in 2020

Hyderabad: Indicating that the She Teams of Telangana were getting more popular among women, complaints from women on harassment faced on social media has gone up from 40 per cent of the total complaints in five years from 2014 to 2019, to 63 per cent in 2020, that too before the year was over yet.

The harassment was mainly via WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter, while harassment via email and blank calls on mobile phones too had gone up, according to the Women’s Safety Wing (WSW), which shared the details in connection with the celebrations of the 6th anniversary of the She Teams here on Saturday.

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Officials said from 2014 to September, 2020, there were 30,187 petitions lodged via the Dial 100 facility, the She Team’s Facebook page, WhatsApp number, the Hawk-Eye app, email, Twitter handle and also through direct walk-ins. There was drastic rise in the number of complaints via these platforms, from 40 per cent to 63 percent, according to WSW officials.

On January 28, 2020, She teams started the WhatsApp number (9441669988) and so far, have received 420 complaints. Additional Director-General of Police in charge of WSW, Swati Lakra said She Teams were encouraging women and children in rural and urban areas to come forward to contact and lodge complaints with the She Teams in case of harassment of any sort.

The She Teams were launched on October 24, 2014 in Hyderabad as part of the State government’s vision of providing a safe and secure environment for women. In view of the success of the She Teams in the city, it was replicated initially in Cyberabad and thereafter across the State from April 1, 2015.

The WSW too has already made a name for itself in the country by launching a series of innovative awareness programmes on women’s safety and giving utmost importance to their security. Training was imparted to all She Teams and during the pandemic, online training was conducted.

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