© Rohan Hande
Culture & Living
Vogue Warriors: Meet the social entrepreneur leading the fight against the rising rate of cyber crime during the lockdown
As we collectively spend more time online, Akancha Srivastava of Akancha Against Harassment is leading the country’s largest social impact initiative against cyber crime
Over the past 50 days, the number of serious complaints received by Akancha Against Harassment, a crisis helpline set up to combat cyber crime, has witnessed a 100 per cent jump, compared to the pre COVID-19 era. Brand strategist-turned-social entrepreneur Akancha Srivastava, who founded the initiative in 2017, delivers the bad news without sounding alarmist. “Serious complaints are those which are red flags and need our immediate attention,” says Srivastava. These SOS complaints include acid attack threats and rape threats among others.
Recently, Srivastava was extremely vocal when TikTok star Faizal Siddiqui posted a video purportedly re-enacting an acid attack. “We’re addressing a lot of issues (via online workshops) like the Bois Locker Room incident and the recent Tik Tok controversy where acid attacks and rape attacks are being normalised,” adds Srivastava.
During lockdown, they have been conducting a series of cyber safety workshops through Instagram Live and Facebook Live sessions. Through these virtual workshops they have been addressing subjects such as child grooming, revenge pornography and other internet crimes during these workshops. “The sessions are going extremely well and this is also the right time because we have a captive audience,” she says.
The foundation’s helpline team is also working 24x7. Since April, they have received over 800 complaints, a majority of which were from women. “Before the lockdown we used to get about 10 complaints a day, which needed us to immediately swing into action, and now the number is between 20-25,” says Srivastava. The gender ratio of men and women using social media in India is 67:33, according to a Statista report released in 2019, which is also why the “pushback from men is higher”, according to Srivastava.
Crimes against women
To combat the rise in cyber crimes, Srivastava now has three key teams in place including 29 full-time employees and interns. When their helpline receives complaints, they are colour-coded in order of the degree of urgency with red being SOS complaints and orange, yellow, green subsequently. Besides their team, there are hundreds of volunteers that include influencers, legal experts and law and order authorities among others who offer their help pro bono, as and when needed.
Complaints against sextortion, revenge pornography and porn scams are on the rise and among the leading cyber crimes that target women. “There are also a lot of unsolicited pictures and videos that are going around,” adds Srivastava. The victim is unfortunately burdened with societal shame. “We cannot victimise the victim, we have to stand by her,” she says.
The lockdown also made the disconcerting scenario of children being sexually abused online a bigger reality, as more and more schools opt for online classes. “We’ve been listening to a lot of complaints from parents. Usually, somebody known to the child, maybe a trainer or a teacher may flash in front of the child using a video camera. Or they may try to influence them. It is really scary because these groomers start from a place of trust.” The entrepreneur also encourages parents to talk to their children about online harassment, she adds, “Just as there’s good touch bad touch in physical life, there’s a good touch, bad touch in virtual life.”
Support system
When Srivastava started her foundation, her own experience of being stalked online gave her a sense of what a victim of cyber crime undergoes. After she published a blog about her traumatic experience, millions of victims of online harassment wrote to her. “The trigger for the initiative was the number of people who reached out to me,” says Srivastava.
The three goals of her social initiative is to educate, empower and protect. With a digital reach of over 125 million, they conduct regular workshops across the country and have covered 23 Indian cities so far, with Srivastava having personally addressed 1 lakh people till date. “Students, parents, teachers—anyone with a smart phone and access to Google is our target audience,” she says. In 2017, they launched an AI-enabled English helpline and a Hindi helpline in 2018. “Many of us in the country don’t know our rights and laws. So these chatbots provide phone numbers, tell you whom to approach, how you can file a complaint and what rights you have,” she says.
They also serve as the bridge between the police force and victims. Over 50 high ranking police officials including Swati Lakra, the Inspector General of Police in Telangana among others have joined hands with them. “The initiative has helped bring down the feeling of distrust towards the police that victims have besides the fear of approaching authorities”, she says. The police force, which has been overworked during the lockdown, have continued to support the foundation’s work. Earlier this month, Maharashtra IGP, Krishna Prakash went live on Akancha Against Harassment’s Instagram handle.
The big goal is to include people from across the world in the work that she does. “We want more people to take advantage of this initiative. People should benefit and educate themselves, crimes should go down, perpetrators should be brought to book and for that to happen, knowledge should be freely available.”
Vogue Warriors shines the spotlight on the women at the medical frontlines and essential services—doctors, nurses, scientists, innovators—alongside behind-the-scene heroes working tirelessly to help us through the ongoing pandemic.
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