MARGAO
On the occasion of International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Tuesday, women’s right activists under the banner of Goa Women’s Forum expressed their concern over the rise in cases of violence on women and children through the use of digital tools in South Goa District.
A delegation of Goa Women’s Forum led by Secretary Lorna Fernandes called on the South Goa Superintendent of Police and handed over a memorandum, submitting their concerns as ‘Digital Violence is Real Violence’, the theme for the observation of this International Day.
In the memorandum, the activists pointed out that the existing forms of gender-based violence like stalking, hate speech, sexual harassment, misinformation, defamation and even impersonation have got a boost with the digital revolution. “New forms of abuse have been created by this same digital revolution like hacking, trolling, deep fakes, cyber bullying and even online grooming to name a few,” Lorna said.
As technology-facilitated violence against women and girls is a global, national and State concern, it is important that an action plan is prepared to tackle the same in the South Goa District to conduct taluka-level awareness programmes on how technology-facilitated violence against women and girls takes place and steps to prevent the same with the assistance of the Cybercrime Cell.
“We have asked the police to train women teachers how to prevent and report technology-facilitated violence against girl students by conducting awareness sessions.”
