Disconnected Infrastructures and Violence Against Women: Innovating Digital Technologies in Low-Income Neighbourhoods to Produce Safer Indian Cities

In urban India, violence against women (VAW) has been continuous and widespread. This highlights the challenge of delivering UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 5 and 11: gender equality and safe, sustainable, inclusive cities. In particular, women in low-income urban neighbourhoods face increased sexual and physical assaults during access to and use of connected infrastructures (eg. water, toilets, transport, walkways), which also highlight the challenge of delivering SDG 6: clean water and sanitation for all. In addition, there is an acute information and skills gap in technology use amongst women in marginalised communities that can limit their access to urban infrastructure.

In this project, the team takes a rights-based approach to addressing these challenges by improving women’s knowledge of and safe access to urban infrastructure in the Indian city. It seeks to understand and map blindspots in urban infrastructure to help address challenges of VAW and improve safety for women in cities. 

The project team is using innovations in digital technology and open-source mapping, co-produced with societal partners, to collect big data on infrastructural blindspots, and deep data on VAW through participatory mapping of infrastructure use.

You can read the project's Disconnected Infrastructures blog  or follow them on Twitter at @infrastruct_VAW. 

Programme highlights

Infrastructure and Women’s Safety in India

Principal Investigator: Dr Ayona Datta, King's College London

Co-Investigators: Dr Don Slater, London School of Economics and Political Science; Dr Joanne Entwistle, King's College London; Dr Rakhi Tripathi, Fore School of Management, Delhi