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Information Technology University(ITU) is working on an app that will enable women to report harassment cases occurred in public places. It is quite unfortunate that women are conditioned to believe that such incidents are normal and they are never given enough confidence to report such incidents.
While talking to local News, ITU Vice-Chancellor Dr. Umar Saif told the reason behind working on report app. He told that women ignore such cases and do not report them to a police station. Furthermore, there is no data really available in Pakistan which can identify the places where women are harassed. Neither do we have any information regarding the timings when such incidents happen.
He further told that the pilot project ‘Recap’ was initiated a year ago with the help of World bank. He told that this app will aid in conducting a survey of harassment cases.
Saif explained how the app will work. He told that in the first phase, the locations and timings will be identified where most harassment cases occur. This will help the concerned authorities to take an action. This will initiate stern actions taken by concerned authorities against the culprits. They will further work towards making those areas secure where most harassment cases are reported.
Dr. Faisal Kamran who is the project head and also serves as ITU Data Science Lab Director told the local news source that they conducted a survey of 2000 women and on the basis of the data gathered, facts and figures were extracted. In the next step, they have a plan to access educational institutes, offices, and recreational sites and carry out another survey that will give us even more reasons to launch this app. According to him, such incidents will significantly decrease after the reporting began.
This app is much needed in a country like Pakistan so that women stop staying silent when it comes to standing up to harassment. With the launch of this app, not only harassment incidents can be significantly reduced but women will also have their confidence boosted and they will feel less hesitant to talk about harassment openly.
Do you think such app is needed in Pakistan? Let us know in the comments section.
