The Digital Shakti Campaign, a pan-Indian initiative to digitally empower and skill women and girls in cyberspace, was launched by the National Commission for Women (NCW). The project is managed in partnership with the CyberPeace Foundation and Meta.
The Commission, together with partners Meta and CyberPeace Foundation, has launched Digital Shakti 4.0, which is aimed at empowering women with the digital skills and awareness to speak out against any illegal or inappropriate activity online. This initiative is in keeping with the Commission's commitment to creating safe spaces for women and girls online.
Ms Rekha Sharma, Chairperson, NCW, Major Vineet Kumar, Founder and Global President, CyberPeace Foundation, Shri Rajiv Aggarwal, Director and Head of Public Policy, Meta India, Lt Gen B.S. Raju, UYSM, AVSM, YSM, Vice Chief of Army Staff were present during the inaugural ceremony.
Rekha Sharma, Chairperson of NCW, acknowledged the Commission's ongoing work to advance women's status in all areas of society during her opening remarks. "This new stage will prove to be a turning point in making sure that women have safe online environments. By teaching them how to utilise technology effectively and to stay safe online, Digital Shakti has increased the engagement of women and girls in the digital world. I think the project will keep helping to fight cyber-violence against women and girls and make the internet a safer place for them," the speaker stated.
While Rajiv Aggarwal highlighted Meta’s efforts towards enabling safe online experience for women, “It has always been our endeavour to create an online experience for women which is not only enabling but is also safe. Digital Shakti has been an enabler for more than 3 lakh women and with the launch of phase 4, we aim to sensitize more than 1 million women across India on how to be safe online so as to derive the best experience and opportunities that digital platforms have to offer.
An interactive panel discussion on "Safe Spaces Online Combatting Cyber-enabled Human Trafficking & Combatting Other Forms of Online Violence" was held immediately after the launch to solicit opinions from experts from the business, government, and academic sectors about how best to address the problem of online women safety from all angles and provide a comprehensive solution.
Padma Shri Sunitha Krishnan, General Secretary, Prajwala, Mr Ashutosh Pande, Senior Research Officer, NCW, Pavan Duggal, Advocate Supreme Court of India and Advisor, CPF, Veerendra Mishra, AIG, SISF, Madhya Pradesh Police and Advisor, NCW, Preeti Chauhan, Director-Operations, CPF participated in the discussion.
In June 2018, Digital Shakti was founded to support women across the country in increasing their level of digital literacy, developing resilience, and effectively combating cybercrime. Through this project, nearly 3 Lakh women in India have learned how to stay safe online, how to report and address issues, how to protect their personal information, and how to use technology to their advantage.
In March 2021, NCW Chairperson Ms. Rekha Sharma launched the third phase of the programme in Leh in the presence of the lieutenant governor, Shri. Radha Krishna Mathur, and Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, MP, Ladakh. A Resource Center was also created as part of the project's third phase to provide details on all reporting options for women who encounter cybercrime.
