Safecity is a platform that documents personal experiences of sexual harassment and abuse in public spaces. This data which maybe anonymous, gets aggregated as hot spots on a map indicating trends at a local level. The idea is to make this data useful for individuals, local communities and local administration. www.safecity.in @pinthecreep facebook.com/safecity.in

1. THE VIBRANT
STARTUP
CHALLENGE
www.globalceoconclave.com

2. About Your
Startup
Name of founders
1. ElsaMarie DSilva
2. Saloni Malhotra
3. Surya Velamuri
Name of the organisation
Red Dot Foundation - Safecity
Address
Address: 7 Sea View, Four Bungalows,
Andheri West
City: Mumbai
Email
info@safecity.in
Social links
Facebook: www.facebook.com/safecity.in
Twitter: @pinthecreep
LinkedIn:
YouTube:
Contact number
9867644975

3. What
does your
startup do?
Safecity aims to make cities safer by encouraging equal access to public
spaces for everyone especially women, through the use of data and
technology.
UN Women states that 1 in 3 women face some kind of sexual assault at least once
in their lifetime. But in our experience, the statistic in India seems to be extremely
high. Only 33707 cases of rape were reported in 2013 in India. Most women and
girls do not talk about this abuse for a multiple of reasons - fear of society,
culture, victim blaming, fear of police, tedious formal procedures etc. As a result
women keep silent and this data is not captured anywhere but the perpetrator
gets bolder over time.
Through our platform our main objective is to:
- Create awareness on street harassment and abuse and get women and other
disadvantaged communities to break their silence and report their personal
experiences.
- Collate this information to showcase location based trends.
- Make this information available and useful for individuals, local
communities and local administration to solve the problem at the local level.

4. 4
Safecity consists of several ways that women/girls can connect with each other on
the issue.
a) Crowdmap - People can share their stories anonymously by providing details of
what happened, where and when the incident took place. This then gets aggregated
as hotspots on a map indicating location based trends. People use the comments
section to offer advice or show solidarity.
b) Social media - Twitter is a curated account, Facebook showcases our work and
educates on current events and we have bloggers contributing a more detailed
personal perspective.
c) Data from our site - is used to undertake local campaigns to find neighbourhood
solutions. e.g. Goa police receive a data file every fortnight. In a suburb in Mumbai,
the police changed their beat patrol timings based on our data. We have new pilots
starting in Delhi in Jan 2015.
d) Workshops for different age groups and demographics to educate on the issue,
laws and personal rights as well as challenging cultural norms and attitudes.

5. Tell us
something
about your
founders
ElsaMarie DSilva
Managing Director & CoFounder
http://about.me/dsilvaelsamarie
@elsamariedsilva
She is an experienced aviation professional who
made a career switch about 2 years back to the
social space in order to improve the lives of
women, youth and senior citizens through
awareness, interaction and education. Safecity is
the first of her social projects.
She is also a trained counsellor in both the
directive and non directive methods of
counselling. She is a Vital Voices Lead Fellow,
a mentee in the Cherie Blair Foundation for
women and an alumni of the Swedish Institute.

6. Tell us
something
about your
founders
Saloni Malhotra
Director & CoFounder
http://about.me/salonimalhotra
@salonimalhotra
She is the founder of DesiCrew, a for-profit
organization employing over 300 people that’s
focused on creating knowledge-based livelihood
opportunities in small towns and rural areas. An
engineer from Pune University, she previously worked
with WebChutney, an interactive media start-up.
Her initiatives at DesiCrew have been acknowledged
with several awards such as TiE Stree Shakti,
Business in Development, Manthan Award and
Sankalp.

7. Tell us
something
about your
founders
Surya Velamuri
Director & CoFounder
http://about.me/surya.velamuri
@suevelamuri
She is a sustainability professional for the past
ten years and one of the Co-founders and
Director of Safecity, her first social venture.
She believes that every person has a right to "be
safe" and feels that technology can be a strong
enabler to achieve citizen engagement to combat
sexual abuse and violence. She is an alumni of
the Swedish Institute.

8. How is
your startup
different from
the other
startups?
We are creating a new data set which currently does not exist. Perception of the
police's insensitivity as well as cultural backlash deters people from reporting. They
feel more comfortable using our platform and this is seen by reports from over 20
years ago.
By representing the information thus collected on a map as hotspots, we are
moving the focus away from the "victim" to the location and people can view the
issue with a different lens.
Also people can sign up for alerts either based on location or category of
harassment. This allows people to understand the "safety" landscape of an area
and make the most informed decision for themselves. e.g. They can decide on time
of visit, method of transport to use, if they need to be accompanied by someone or
even what clothes to wear.
Today we make choices for pretty much everything based on reviews - books,
movies, restaurants, hotels but we have nothing for personal safety. We are
creating this database which can be used in several ways.

9. How is
your startup
transforming
India?
Since our launch on 26 Dec 2012 we have collected over 4000 stories from over 50 cities in
India and Nepal.

10. How is
your startup
transforming
India?
We have trained 2000 people spanning the ages of 9 – 60 years in Mumbai, Delhi & NCR,
Rajasthan and the US. We conduct these workshops in Hindi and English.

11. How is
your startup
transforming
India?
• Safecity has a direct link with the Goa police where a person can report it as a complaint to them
if the location selected is Goa. We are in the preliminary stages of engagement with the Delhi
police for the Lal Kuan area.
• Lal Kuan, New Delhi - working with the GRC to educate the girls of a low
economic community on sexual harassment, their rights and mapping/auditing their area and
finding solutions.
• Dwarka, New Delhi - just set up a team of law students who will start work in Jan on
mapping/auditing their area for sexual harassment and finding solutions.
• Noida - just set up a team of high school students who will start work in Dec on
mapping/auditing their area for sexual harassment and finding solutions.
• Helping NGOs like Naz and Breakthrough with local data for their new campaign and
introducing them to our work on ground.

12. @Vibgujfacebook.com/vibrantgujarat@CEOConclavefacebook.com/vibrantgujarat