Kalpana Viswanath Explained

Kalpana Viswanath
Nationality:Indian
Occupation:social entrepreneur

Kalpana Viswanath is a social entrepreneur in India. She is the co-founder and CEO of Safetipin, a social enterprise which uses technology and apps to collect data for the safe movement of women in urban spaces.[1] Viswanath is on the advisory board of UN Habitat, International Centre for the Prevention of Crime and SLOCAT. She was part of a study group with Delhi government to prepare a report on Women's Safety in Delhi.[2]

Career

Viswanath studied sociology at the University of Delhi. Her PhD thesis was on ‘A Sociological Analysis of the Contemporary Women’s Movement in India’.

Viswanath served as the director of Jagori Women's Resource Centre from 2000 till 2007.[3] She worked on issues such as migration, trafficking of women workers and violence against women. She also worked with government and non-government stakeholders on the Safe Delhi campaign, which focused on violence against women in public spaces.[4]

Viswanath was a project director for the Gender Inclusive Cities Project with Women in Cities International. The research was carried out in Tanzania, Argentina, Russia and India from January 2009 to March 2012. She is the chair of the International Advisory Committee of Women in Cities International.[5]

She has also worked as a senior advisor at UN Habitat. She created partnerships with government and other stakeholders in New Delhi for the programme on safer cities from April 2010 to September 2013.[6] [7]

In 2013, Viswanath co-founded Safetipin with Ashish Basu. Safetipin addresses the need to combat increasing violence against women and girls in public places, with its app. The platform has been used by individuals as well as urban stakeholders such as governments.[8] Safetipin has worked with various countries, researching and generating reports to make their cities safe[9] for women.[10] [11] [12] Its work includes listing data on the presence of street lights and mapping unsafe routes and transport availability.[13]

Viswanath writes columns for the Hindustan Times,[14] [15] [16] The Wire,[17] and Mint.[18]

Publications

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Delhi's My Safetipin App is telling women which streets are unsafe to be on. Here's how. The New Indian Express. 4 February 2020. 5 January 2023.
  2. Web site: 210,000 LED streetlights in city within four months: Kejriwal. 30 December 2020.
  3. 'Shall We Go out?' Women's Safety in Public Spaces in Delhi . 4419521 . Viswanath . Kalpana . Mehrotra . Surabhi Tandon . Economic and Political Weekly . 2007 . 42 . 17 . 1542–1548 .
  4. Web site: Indian women lack privilege to roam around city spaces, Gurugram is no exception. 28 June 2018. Hindustan Times.
  5. Web site: Kalpana Viswanath Oxfam Policy & Practice. Policy & Practice. en. 2020-04-29.
  6. News: NCW plans to rope in state bodies for night walks 'celebrating' right to free movement of women | India News - Times of India. The Times of India. 29 January 2020 .
  7. Web site: Take five: The idea is to make safety a collective enterprise that we all work towards improving. 19 March 2019 .
  8. Web site: Women, safety and the city . Jagori . safedelhi.in.
  9. Web site: Award-winning Safetipin Continues to Scale up Activities and Make Women Around the World Safer | Cities Alliance.
  10. News: What would a city that is safe for women look like?. The Guardian. 13 December 2018. Fleming. Amy.
  11. Web site: In Latin America, women turn to apps to combat sexual violence | DW | 05.10.2019. Deutsche Welle.
  12. Web site: Making cities safe for women | New Straits Times. 8 March 2018.
  13. Web site: Interview – Kalpana Viswanath. 2019-04-01. In Plainspeak. en-US. 2020-04-29.
  14. https://www.hindustantimes.com/gurugram/stringent-steps-are-needed-to-curb-sexual-abuse-of-children/story-92LmkLsTyouVodTdv12HlL
  15. Web site: Convergence of civic bodies will ensure better living . Hindustan Times . 8 August 2019. 2022-06-08.
  16. Web site: Involve people in designing and planning public places. 26 July 2018. Hindustan Times.
  17. https://thewire.in/government/delhi-government-free-public-transport-women-safetyhtml
  18. Web site: Making our cities safe for women. Dhar. Kalpana Viswanath,Suneeta. 10 January 2017. Livemint.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Kalpana Viswanath".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.