{"id":6447,"date":"2020-11-19T14:15:30","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T19:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/?p=6447"},"modified":"2021-05-21T09:46:22","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T13:46:22","slug":"sexual-violence-india-blockchain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/2020\/11\/19\/sexual-violence-india-blockchain","title":{"rendered":"Sexual Violence in India: Blockchain\u2019s Role in Empowering Survivors"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a typically brisk winter evening in Saket, South Delhi, Jyoti Singh and a male friend enjoyed a trip to the movies to watch Ang Lee\u2019s Life of Pi<\/em>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heading home afterwards they waited at a bus stop, and then boarded a private bus bound for Dwarka at around 9.30pm. But Jyoti didn\u2019t make it home. Six men brutally gang-raped and tortured her while her friend was beaten. On December 29 2012, after fighting for her life for 13 days, Jyoti Singh died.<\/span><\/p>\n

The savage murder of this young woman sent shockwaves throughout India. Thousands of protestors took to the streets across India and South Asia, as anger erupted in every corner of the country and spilled out across the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To many, it felt different this time, as if Jyoti\u2019s cruel fate could spark meaningful cultural and legal change, as if perhaps the country was reckoning with the fact that India\u2019s traditionalism and inherent values weren\u2019t enough to keep its citizens safe. Young women were especially concerned; many had experienced enough harassment to recognize that Jyoti\u2019s fate could have easily been a friend\u2019s, a sister\u2019s, their own.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once-silenced voices began to make themselves heard. Nascent citizen journalism made use of the internet and social media to collect and disseminate information, opening up a new space for survivors and allies to express their thoughts and unleash their despair, and exposing a swelling tumor of discontent and outrage to the world. \u2018Nirbhaya\u2019, the internet screamed out in pain for Jyoti, meaning \u2018fearless one\u2019 in Hindi, a word which quickly became synonymous with the movement itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

But speaking out on these issues is a tough decision, one that takes substantial courage; the desperation for change and justice can outweigh the fear and eclipse the risk, but there is no denying it can change your life, and put a target on your back.<\/span><\/p>\n

It changed the life of journalist Meera Vijayann, herself a survivor of sexual violence. Meera says in a<\/span> 2013 TEDx talk<\/span><\/a> that December 29 was a day that India \u201cplunged into darkness\u201d, as people across the country woke up to the \u201chorrific truth\u201d about the treatment of women in the country. As protests spread to where Meera was living in Bangalore, she made a spontaneous decision. Logging onto a citizen journalism platform, Meera recorded and posted a video of the scene in her city and aired her frustrations and concerns. \u201cI realized, for the first time, that my voice mattered\u201d, she asserts in the talk.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were, of course, risks associated with speaking up. She received hateful comments and online abuse. I asked Meera if she thought the option to report or even just to access support anonymously would encourage survivors to speak up and reach out for the assistance they need. \u201cAs a survivor myself, I’ve thought about it a lot,\u201d she tells me.<\/span><\/p>\n

I stayed silent for many years because I knew that there’d be consequences when I talked in public.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI decided to do so because I knew that I had supportive family and friends. So yes, personal stories can put survivors of violence and their families at risk. I think the option to report on violence anonymously will definitely encourage women to speak up (especially when they are at-risk or marginalized), but it does make a huge difference when women share their stories publicly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Reporting and documenting sexual violence<\/span><\/h4>\n

If the internet democratizes information, blockchain goes some way toward safeguarding it. Not every survivor seeking access to justice and support wants to be the latest poster child for rape victims in the media. Nobody is obligated to speak up before they are ready or even at all, particular in cultures in which stigmatization is more prevalent. So how do we ensure that survivors aren\u2019t facing a choice between waiving anonymity or waiving access to support and justice?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Smashboard, \u2018your digital ally to smash patriarchy\u2019, is an app that utilizes the Ethereum Blockchain to create an encrypted space for survivors in India to report sexual violence. Smashboard users are able to obtain medical, legal, or psychological support, and store information such as photos, video and audio files, screenshots and documents as time-stamped evidence that could prove crucial to a case.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the Smashboard website puts it, \u201cfighting the patriarchy is real and risky labor \u2013 and tech can simplify a lot of this work\u201d. As well as helping survivors of sexual violence access justice and support through connections with legal representatives, emotional and psychological support, and offering the ability to create an immutable record of evidential material, Smashboard can connect users with feminist journalists sensitive to their stories \u2014 and enables them to leave anonymous tips, without having to make the difficult choice to speak up publicly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Choose your anonymity?<\/span><\/h4>\n

Founder Noopur Tiwari, a survivor of sexual violence herself, is a strong believer that while survivors speaking out is an essential part of empowering others to do the same, pushing people to report or speak out particularly before they are ready can be retraumatizing. The app provides an element of \u2018choose your own anonymity\u2019 by implementing a blockchain solution alongside a wealth of additional features.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cSmashboard\u2019s implementation is heavily geared towards zero knowledge proof,\u201d says Noopur. \u201cThat, for us, is paramount so that users can remain anonymous for as long as they need to, and still manage to access all the features that they want to access. We also felt that the system needed a way to indisputably link anonymized artefacts to a given user at any point, irrespective of whether they have chosen to remain pseudo-anonymous or not. And blockchain allows you to do that \u2013 it affords users the secure comfort that they need.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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