The phone app challenging fighting violence against women in a Mumbai slum | KumKum Dasgupta

Domestic abuse is rife in Dharavi slum, but a new project uses a smartphone app and trained community workers to improve the reporting of violence

Bhanuben lets out a throaty laugh when asked if the men of Dharavi are scared of her and her team. “Not yet ... but they are a tad wary of us these days,” says the 42-year-old community worker for SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action), a Mumbai-based NGO.

Mumbai’s Dharavi slum is home to anywhere between 300,000 and 1 million people. Bhanuben was born and brought up here and knows the place like the back of her hand, and the challenges of surviving in this “teeming slum of 1 million souls”.

Data from the National Crime Records Bureau shows that 43.6% of all crimes against women are by husbands and relatives

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