Web Resources in
Creating Awareness on Violence against Women
India
has a big economic image, it is considered as one of the most powerful emerging
nation to play a big role in the world economy, India is one of the most
potential nations of BRICS along with the countries like Brazil, Russia, China
and South Africa.
During a visit in November 2010, U.S. President
Barack Obama described the country as ‘not just a rising power’ but one that
has ‘already risen.’ This optimism was clouded by the findings of a poll
conducted by Thomson Reuters in 2011, according to which India is the fourth
most dangerous country in the world for women.
Statistics shows that within the span of three
generations India has systematically targeted and annihilated more than 50
million women from its population. One illustration of this is the skewed sex
ratio: the 2011 census found that there are 940 women for every 1000 men, which
is sufficient to highlight the atrocities and discrimination that is rooted in
our culture. Women are threatened by multiple forms of violence in one or the
other five stages of the life cycle: “1) pre-birth,
2) infancy, 3) girlhood, 4) adolescence and adulthood and 5) elderly”, as
categorized by WHO.
The most common forms of violence women across the globe has
to suffer with are: domestic violence, sexual
harassment, coercive use of contraceptives, female
infanticide, prenatal sex selection, obstetric violence and mob violence. They are also forced to
experience harmful customary or traditional practices such as honor killings, dowry violence, female genital mutilation, marriage by abduction and forced
marriage. Some forms of violence are perpetrated or condoned by the state such
as war rape, sexual violence and sexual
slavery during conflict, forced sterilization, forced abortion,
violence by the police and authoritative personnel, stoning and flogging,
adding to this big list is women trafficking and forced prostitution which is
often perpetrated by organized criminal networks.
Although
the violence against women is an age old crime then too it has been seen that
no big hue and cry has been made to abolish this disease from our social and
cultural roots, women still remains a mute sufferer and an ignorant being about
the legislative provisions and procedures she can trust upon and relay for
help.
Revolution in the field of technology both in
hard and software has now made it possible to sensitize people against this
crime and make women aware of their women-hood and dignity.
As
a result of this revolution we now have access to internet and internet based
web 2.0 tools, millions of facebook and twitter accounts, increasing use of
blogs to publish own stories, countless photos and viral videos, number of
conferencing tools are the proof.
There
is a rapid change in technology and usage of web resources, until recently
there is a prime use of e-mail for communication and collaboration but now we
find face book one of the very powerful tool where updating ones status is far
more quicker than the any other resources any sensational post takes up a viral
shape via sharing we have already seen the power of social media in case of
violence against women too.
Web
and specifically web 2.0 resources can play a vital role in creating awareness
against the violence against women and also can sensitize people regarding the
issue, web can also be used to inculcate more human values in the netigens and
can also educate our ladies about their rights and can encourage them to say no
to the violence against them.
Web
2.0 tools represent a collection of internet based tools that enhance
communication through openness and interactive capabilities, web 2.0
technologies continue to evolve at a breath taking pace making connectivity and
collaboration easier and faster.
Creating
proper awareness regarding violence against women and sensitizing people for
the same through web resources basically depend on some of the following
points.
1. Creating an effective dissemination
strategy for the cause of women well being.
2.
Building awareness for the campaign.
3.
Selection of web resources for the proper campaign.
1. Creating
an effective dissemination strategy
Dissemination can be understood in following
three ways:
a. Dissemination for Awareness
According to an online free dictionary
awareness means knowledge gained through one's own perceptions or by means of information.
This can be assumed that, at the very least, we wish people to be aware of the subject
we are interested in to create and propagate information about.
b. Dissemination for Understanding
There will be a number
of groups/audiences that will need to target directly with the dissemination. These
groups/audiences have a deeper understanding of the campaign and intention.
c. Dissemination for
Action
Action is a change of
practice resulting from the adoption of subject, materials or approaches
offered for dissemination. These groups/audiences will be those people that are
in a position to influence and bring about change within their organizations.
These are the groups/audiences that will need to be equipped with the right
skills, knowledge and understanding about the subject and work to achieve real
change.
2.
Building awareness for the campaign
Building or creating
awareness about the subject is the second important thing.
Creating awareness
means the process and
tactics we use to (efficiently and intelligently) achieving awareness.
If we want to achieve success in creating awareness especially
through web resources we need to know some of the important issues which should
be kept in mind while using web as a source to create awareness.
a. Identify
targets and supporters
Targets are the people who have the direct power to give what we
want. They are often officials who have the authority to make policy changes.
The target could be a government minister, government organizations, when the
target takes action, goal is achieved.
Supporters are people
who help achieve the goal by putting pressure on the target. These could be
sympathetic politicians, NGO’s or civic organizations that care about our cause
b. Segment
audience
Breaking down audience into smaller groups that
share common characteristics is called segmenting, more the segments, more the
tailoring of the message to the specific priorities of a group.
c.
Establish
a message arc
The message arc is a
multi message narrative that takes audience from where they are (not knowing or
caring about your cause) to where they ought to be (taking action on behalf of
your cause). If the support of the audience is strong, the message arc will be
small. For example, if an MP already supports women’s rights you can ask
them directly to support your campaign.
d. Understand supporters
network
Use of web
resources has made it very easy digital to send a message to different
audiences, these platforms also make it very easy for audience to send messages
to their networks of friends, family, and colleagues. These supporter networks
are essential for building more and more audience e.g., if out of 100
followers on Twitter or face book, half of these followers share the messages
with their followers, the number of audience could quickly reach thousands of
people.
e.
Fine-tune messaging &
provide a call to action
Messaging will look different on different web
platforms , but some of the important things which should be kept in mind while
writing a message campaign are the use of emotion , outrage, shock, or
humor to grab the audience’s attention . Use of facts and
statistics will make the problem specific and will establish authority in
defining the problem, next step is to define a solution. People will take
action only if they believe your solution will fix the problem and that their
action will help to achieve that solution.
Provide a call to action,
and make clear what action should the audience take.
f.
Gather Data
One of
the nice things about digital media is that it’s easy to track information
about the campaign. Tracking data like site hits, feedback, comments and retweets can help know which
messages are most popular and which are not. Here are some tools you can use to
gather data.
g.
Choose suitable
technology
To fulfill the purpose of creating awareness about
the subject of the campaign it is very essential to know about the web resources
available to fulfill the purpose.
3.
Selection of web resources for the proper campaign
Let us
now discuss number of synchronous and asynchronous web resources which can help
in creating awareness and causing a viral spread of the campaign.
For relevant search on
subject google scholar, wikis, authentic
websites provide the content ant statistics about the subject, blogger and word
press can be used to publish views and discussions
Bookmarks
such as diigo, delicious, google bookmarks are very effective resources for
saving important sites, annotating and sharing the content, e-mails site such as g mail, yahoo, hotmail, rediff etc. still remains the biggest
sources to add contacts and share the matter with them, instant messaging could
be effectively done digsby, twitter as
micro blogging tool can create viral impact about the campaign.
Facebook is the most popular media to share and sensitize
people regarding the issue.
Some tools which can be used to measure the influence of your
campaign on the subject are Twtpoll,
askitonline, buzzvote which can be used for receiving polls
Photo
editors like picasa, fotor, be funcy and photo manager like flickr presentation and word processors as slideshare, empress,
sliderocket, zohoshow, google docs, video
editor like kaltura, motionbox, moviemasher can be used to prepare effective
content including multimedia features and making the subject more heart
touching and catering to the cognative as well as the effective domain of the
target group.
Web
Conferencing tools like Wiziq, blackboard
collaborates, zohomeetings, skype can be used to make the subject international
and can collaborate and share with the people, government officials, victims
and others in the real time.
This is how all the above mentioned
resources can be used to disseminate the awareness among the masses inspiring
them to awake, rise and act for the cause of the campaign.
One of
the examples of using various web resources with the help of an interactive
collage can be seen at thinglink which was shared in various groups and resources on web
to create the awareness regarding this social issue.
CONCLUSION
Violence against women is a serious violation of women’s
human rights and of direct concern to the public and government. Thus, government
and public should play a central part in raising awareness among the masses to
prevent this violence. To openly debate this subject is a way to reduce
society’s tolerance towards violence against women.
There is still limited knowledge about what web resources
are available to spread awareness for violence against women and how to do it,
hence the use of proper and powerful web strategy in spreading awareness still
remains the key elements for further study.
SUGGESTIONS
1.
Knowledge about web
resources and its usage is essential to use web technology for creating
awareness.
2.
Proper strategy
should be evolved in order to disseminate information to the masses so that
required action could be taken.
3.
Text matter and
statistics should be gathered from the reliable resources.
4.
Net working should be very strong and wide for
proper spread of the campaign.
REFERENCES
1.
Harmsworth, S. (July 2001). Creating an Effective Dissemination Strateg. Retrieved October 10,
2014 from http://www.innovations.ac.uk/btg/resources/publications/dissemination.pd.
2.
Temple, J. ( March 9, 2014). Violence
Against Women Hurts Us All. Retrived
October 19, 2014 from http://www.chron.com/opinion/outlook/article/Violence-against-women-hurts-us-all-5301980.php
3.
Violence against women in India: Culture, Institutions
and Eqauality. (September 29, 2013).
Retrived October 20, 2014 from
http://www.newsrecord.co/violence-against-women-in-india-culture-institutions-and-inequality/
