NCW Launches Fourth Phase Of Digital Shakti Campaign

The National Commission for Women (NCW) launched the fourth phase of the Digital Shakti Campaign on Tuesday, November 15. The campaign aims to empower women and girls in cyberspace.

The fourth phase focuses on making women digitally aware of illegal and inappropriate activity online. In a press release by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the NCW launched the campaign in collaboration with Meta and the CyberPeace Foundation.

The NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma described the new phase as “a milestone in ensuring safe cyber spaces for women”.

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Digital Shakti Campaign

Sharma added that the intention of the fourth phase of the Digital Shakti Campaign was to “contribute towards the larger goal of fighting cyber violence against women and girls and making the internet a safer space for them”.

Sharma also said, “Marriage should not be the aim of life. You should empower yourself financially”.

According to the NCW, India has the second-largest internet-using population and the third-highest number of cases of bullying. Most of the incidents happen online. In the case of cybercrime, statistics reveal that 98 percent of the crimes were committed against women.

The Digital Shakti Campaign started in June 2018 to help women gain awareness on the digital front and fight cybercrime. Reportedly, over 3 lakh women across India were made aware of cyber safety tips, data privacy, reporting mechanisms, redressal mechanism, and the usage of technology for their benefit.

The cybersecurity awareness programme for women aims to spread awareness among 10 lakh netizens in two years.

The founder and global president of CyberPeace Foundation Vineet Kumar said the program would help women fight ransomware, stalking, bullying, extortion, and more dangers.

He said that digital platforms had become the first point of contact for criminals when it came to cases of crimes such as trafficking.

Kumar said, "Criminals have started using various tech platforms and children are vulnerable to it. Pretenders who are there are reaching out to children of all age groups, of all segments."

Kumar also revealed that the campaign aimed to reach 1 million netizens within the next two years.