This year's International Women's Day theme, DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality, recognises the significance of digital inclusion and accessibility for women in ensuring that their voices are heard and their rights are protected online. To further this cause, the Red Dot Foundation - Safecity has partnered with coto, a social community app for women, to establish a secure online community space for women to discuss issues such as sexual assault and violence they encounter daily in India. The partnership intends to empower women to speak out about their concerns, discover solutions, create safer public and private areas, and take charge of their digital lives to foster positive change in their communities.
In this interview with TheCSRUniverse, Aparna Acharekar, Co-Founder of coto, and ElsaMarie D’Silva, President of Red Dot Foundation Global (Safecity), discuss their partnership and highlight the role of technology in empowering women. They also delve into how coto employs technology to establish a safe space for women and how this will assist Red Dot Foundation in scaling up its services for identifying, responding to, and preventing sexual and gender-based violence.
To gather more insights on this collaborative effort towards women empowerment, read the full interviews below.
Interview with Aparna Acharekar, Co-Founder of coto
TheCSRUniverse: What role does technology play in empowering women, and how does coto app leverage technology for this purpose?
Aparna Acharekar: Technology is helping women break stereotypes and transform the traditional male dominated society. It’s enabling them to find their voice which was earlier confined to homes. Hence, access to technology plays a vital role in improving women’s possibilities for education, employment, and freedom of expression. Moreover, the newly developed advanced safety applications have made it possible to constantly monitor women’s physical and mental safety.
From the onboarding journey to joining & building your own communities, coto app leverage technology in multiple ways:
Facial Recognition Technology: coto, a social community platform exclusively for women is built on the promise of consent and participative ownership. It utilizes facial recognition technology to identify users and their gender. This enhances the user experience and provides a safer environment for women. On coto, users can feel more confident and secured while navigating through the platform, knowing their personal information is protected. For the same, we are employing Polygon’s Zero Knowledge (ZK) technology as an added layer of security. (It is an Ethereum Layer 2 scalability solution that uses cryptographic zero-knowledge proofs to offer validity to the off-chain transaction). This will ensure that your identity and biometric data is not compromised at any level.
coto OG NFTs: coto utilizes non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to recognize and reward users for their contributions to the community. With coto OG NFTs, community creators can now claim NFTs based on specific metrics such as member onboarding, engagement and transactions. These milestones will be tracked and rewarded, providing an added incentive for creators to build their coto community.
Easy Interface: coto allows every woman to join and/or create her interest-based, connection-based, open or closed, private or public communities. It also helps users discover new and interesting content and fosters a more diverse and inclusive community. Additionally, the app’s user interface has been carefully designed to provide a seamless navigation experience for all members.
TheCSRUniverse: What kind of communities exists on the app, and how can they benefit women?
Aparna Acharekar: Communities across diverse genres such as Indian expats in I, Me, Myself, Zindagi with Richa, Dear Girls, Meri Marzi, Yoniverse, Wonder Women, AstroScience, Let’s Talk Mental Health amongst others are thriving on the coto app. The conversations in these communities range from entrepreneurship, women empowerment to parenting, mental health, safety, and more. To address the issue of women’s safety on online community space, Red Dot Foundation and its flagship platform Safecity have also made their community on coto.
Being part of such thriving and supportive communities on the app brings out the best in women users. It’s a safe space where they can connect with a group of like-minded women, express their passion/opinions freely and safely, discover new interests, network and seek new opportunities. coto offers these women an opportunity to not only build a network in a free and safe space but to also monetize by creating paid communities, offering paid services or through social commerce.
TheCSRUniverse: How does coto address the issue of gender-based violence through its platform? Have you collaborated with any government authorities to expedite your efforts?
Aparna Acharekar: According to UN Women, one in every three women faces some kind of sexual assault at least once in their lifetime. But the statistics for the same in India seem to be higher and many women refrain from talking about these issues for fear of victim blaming, social stigma, and lack of a safe space to open up and talk. Not just in the real world, women face hardships and feel unsafe on online spaces as well. coto gives women a safe and empowered space where they can freely express themselves. Being a social community platform built on participative ownership, coto app provides safety, trust, and transparency at its core, where women don’t need to worry about data privacy.
Moreover, we have Red Dot Foundation and its flagship platform Safecity who have recently joined us on coto. Red Dot Foundation - Safecity will take a step ahead to nurture the members’ experience by organizing workshops and curating conversations on coto app. The Foundation will share educational posts in the form of videos, images, and posts to help women globally.
TheCSRUniverse: How do you reach out to the most marginalized women communities, who may not have access to technology?
Aparna Acharekar: Marginalized women face multiple forms of discrimination in their everyday lives. They have an increased risk of poverty and limited negotiating power and access to resources. To address this issue, we are partnering with and onboarding social sector organisations who work with women at the grassroot level so that they can reach out to their network and bring them on board. Moreover, the coto app is user friendly and can be easily accessed and understood by women with limited technological proficiency.
TheCSRUniverse: How does coto app aim to address the challenges faced by women in accessing education, healthcare, and other services?
Aparna Acharekar: coto’s wide range of communities helps in addressing issues that are faced by women on a day-to-day basis. Be it education, healthcare, women’s rights, fitness, etc., coto enables meaningful conversations and sharing of authentic information in these communities. Keeping with its vision of ‘WomenForWomen’, the users can benefit from each-others experiences and share their expertise and knowledge across topics.
TheCSRUniverse: What features does it offer to its users to facilitate women empowerment? And how are you planning to scale up existing offers and initiatives?
Aparna Acharekar: coto provides a secure virtual environment, free from authoritative control and censorship, where women hold the power to make a difference in the way they desire. It allows women to build communities based on collective interest and speak their minds freely, build meaningful connections, share authentic information, entertain themselves and grow as people.
In addition to creating a safe space for women, our mission is also to give women an equal shot at value. The gender pay gap is something that is always talked about, but rarely ever acted upon. In the social media world, male creators earn 30% more than their female counterparts. It is becoming increasingly difficult for female creators to earn a decent income online. Our objective is to provide members with all the monetization tools they need, to make their own money, on their own terms — without having to depend on anyone or anything. On coto, you own your income.
To scale up our existing initiatives, we recently announced coto OG NFTs which are exclusive creations designed to recognize and reward the contributions of community creators towards the coto platform, personalized to reflect their unique attributes and dedication. The first recipients of these exclusive cotoOG NFTs are Richa Anirudh (Journalist, RJ, talk show host, author, editor), Mona Singh (actress, dancer, model, comedian, anchor), and Pallavi Barnwal (intimacy coach), who have shown their commitment and dedication towards building a vibrant and thriving coto community. These cotoOG NFTs will serve as a virtual identity that goes beyond being digital assets, fostering a sense of belonging within the community.
TheCSRUniverse: How many women users have you helped/empowered so far?
Aparna Acharekar: Within 2 months from the launch of the platform, we have built 5000+ thriving communities by women across the world. We have 20K+ women who are using the app. Diverse topics across genres are discussed on the app - from mental health, sex, menstrual hygiene, finance, fashion, beauty, fitness to parenting, food, travel, social impact and many more.
We have been successful in roping in Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) on coto who identify with our purpose of creating a safe space for women online. Some of the noteworthy KOLs who have joined coto are:
- Urvashi Dholakia’s community ‘I Am Enough’ is all about embracing self-love, learning to be content with yourself and knowing you're all you need.
- Achint Kaur’s community ‘I, Me, Myself’ empowers today's women by redefining their own style and fashion without any worries!
- Pallavi Barnwal’s community ‘Yoniverse’ aims to reignite sexual passion and help women feel fabulous in their bodies.
- Mona Singh’s community ‘Meri Marzi’ leads women to live happy and fulfilling lives by being responsible for their own choices and decisions.
- Smita Bansal’s community ‘Dear Moms of Teens’ aims to share her experience on parenting for teenage girls with all the mothers in the community.
- Kiran Manral’s community ‘40+ and Fab’ celebrates women’s complexities, experiences, and aims to empower women who are constantly learning, changing, and growing.
- Apurva Purohit’s community ‘Dear Girls’ celebrates working women and aims to create a culture where women are encouraged to successfully balance their family along with their jobs.
Interview with ElsaMarie D’Silva, President of Red Dot Foundation Global (Safecity)
TheCSRUniverse: What is the goal of this partnership with coto, and how will it help Safecity scale up its existing services?
ElsaMarie D’Silva: The goal of the partnership is to build the capacity of our common community on coto to identify, respond and prevent sexual and gender-based violence. Coto is an amazing platform for women to share vulnerabilities and experiences, strengthening their sisterhood. Red Dot Foundation works on gender equity, safety, and justice. We are looking forward to creating a safe space on coto for women to learn more about the various forms of sexual and gender-based violence, discuss taboo topics, understand and know the laws and their rights, be familiar with the formal remedies available under the law as well as reporting on our globally awarded Safecity application.
TheCSRUniverse: Please elaborate on the services and assistance that you will be providing to your women users. How will your engagement with government authorities and bodies further support the cause of your women users?
ElsaMarie D’Silva: As mentioned earlier Red Dot Foundation works on gender equity, safety, and justice. We are looking forward to creating a safe space on coto for women to learn more about the various forms of sexual and gender-based violence, discuss taboo topics, understand and know the laws and their rights, be familiar with the formal remedies available under the law as well as reporting on our globally awarded Safecity application.
We will be hosting discussions, workshops and awareness programs on various topics that impact women and hold them back from achieving their potential. We will encourage them to report and document their personal experiences on Safecity and use the dataset in their cities to advocate for change. The Safecity data is available in open-source format for all to use and advocate for safer cities programming.
TheCSRUniverse: Please share success stories where your collaboration with your partners have helped women in distress.
ElsaMarie D’Silva: We work at the community level, advocating for change so that spaces (private, public, and digital) are safer. Our collaboration with partners has helped build the confidence of women to negotiate for more freedoms, access better opportunities, feel confident to venture further from home and stay out longer during the day and night. We have also trained people to be better allies and bystanders, peer educators and challenge the violence. Rather than putting the onus on women to fight their battles alone, we take a community approach to solving the problem using evidence-based data.
TheCSRUniverse: What kind of experts has joined you in your mission and how will they be helping end users? What is your empanelment process?
ElsaMarie D’Silva: We have skill-based volunteers from corporations, student volunteers, researchers and NGO partners who want to implement Safecity into their programming. We also have corporations who want us to help them with DEIA in their culture. We partner with diplomatic missions to further their vision on gender equality and youth/women empowerment.
TheCSRUniverse: Are there any CSR partners who are assisting you in this initiative? Please elucidate how corporate partners can intervene and strengthen your cause.
ElsaMarie D’Silva: We partner with several corporates like L'Oreal who are interested in capacity building of bystanders to intervene and prevent the violence without putting themselves at risk. HDFC Bank was interested in building capacity of community health workers to be first responders to prevent sexual and gender based violence in their communities, SIDBI is helping us work with women in rural communities to be microentrepreneurs in the hospitality and tourism sector and Axis Bank wants to further DEIA amongst youth.
TheCSRUniverse: What has been the impact of your mission so far? How many beneficiaries have you reached out to and how do you measure the success rate of your initiative?
ElsaMarie D’Silva: We have the largest crowdmap in the world with 50,000 personal reports of sexual and gender-based violence. We have partnered with nonprofits and institutions in 17 countries to engage 1 million people on safer cities and communities programming. 250000 people have been through our workshops and 3000 youth have been trained as Safecity ambassadors.
TheCSRUniverse: Based on your experience where do the primary challenges and gaps lie when it comes to addressing issues of crime against women?
ElsaMarie D’Silva: On an average, one in three women experience some form of sexual or gender-based violence in their lifetime, thus making it a global pandemic. Therefore, there is an urgent need for education, awareness and advocacy. Education at all levels on consent, healthy relationships, types of violence and legal rights.
TheCSRUniverse: In our country, legal enforcement and judicial decisions can be time-consuming. Can apps and panel expertise assume the role of fast-track courts to quickly address problems? What are your thoughts?
ElsaMarie D’Silva: They cannot replace the police and judiciary, but they can certainly raise awareness, bring more cases to light (90% do not report) and take a systems approach to solutions.
TheCSRUniverse: What changes would you like to see in terms of policy interventions by the government and judiciary in India?
ElsaMarie D’Silva: A better infrastructure for survivors, quality education at an early age on these topics and quicker response from police and judiciary can help the cause to a great extent.
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