March 8 2022: On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the Consulate General of Ireland, Mumbai and Red Dot Foundation announced the winners of Data Visualisation Challenge on Women’s Safety.
Some 209 students from Ireland and India registered for the challenge and 70 students were selected to pitch their visualisations for women’s safety. The students were from diverse education disciplines - Engineering, Information Technology, Social Science, Media, History, and Legal Studies for instance. An eminent jury comprised of members from law enforcement, social impact sector, UN agencies and private sector shortlisted six teams to present their ideas to the public for the final round on March 4.
During the three-week challenge, three masterclasses were organised by Red Dot Foundation and University College Dublin. The masterclasses covered gender sensitivity, challenging unconscious bias, use of crowdsourced data and mapping technology for safe spaces, data visualisation methods and human centred design. The masterclass on data visualisation methods was facilitated by faculty of University College Dublin.
The first prize was secured by two teams. Unexpected Assaults explored the day, time and age indicators for sexual offences occurring in unexpected locations. They also highlighted that often perpetrators are trusted members of one’s social circles. No Way Home created visualisations based on the Marvel movie universe. They encapsulated the theme of general responses a person in India receives from their family after surviving an incident of gender-based violence.
Travelling in a Woman’s Shoes which secured the second place visualised data on unsafe public transportation. They demonstrated how this directly affects economic growth by preventing women’s mobility and access to economic opportunities, education and employment.
Post Violence Experience of Survivors, the third prize winners visualised the post-traumatic experiences of a survivor. Their visualisation which was a video focused on emotional aftereffects of a sexual offence that may dictate the decision of a survivor to report or not and the reflection on that incident of violence afterwards.
The teams suggested future solutions that focused on sensitivity and consent education at an early age, safety marshalls on the street, reporting kiosks in public spaces like bus stops, easy access to information to build situational awareness and use of Safecity app for reporting incidents.
Said Alison Reilly, Deputy Consul General, Consulate General of Ireland in Mumbai: “The Consulate General of Ireland has been delighted to partner with Red Dot Foundation on this Data Challenge. It has been a wonderful opportunity to bring Indian and Irish students together to collaborate and share their ideas. Data analytics, especially when visualised in an easy to understand way, makes it possible to fine tune policy and to share information with non-specialists and the wider public. Data visualisation is an essential tool in areas such as gender-based violence as many find it difficult to discuss the problem openly. The calibre of the data visualisations has been truly impressive, and I hope at least some of the students go on to develop a career in this field. I would like to congratulate all the students who participated.” -