Facebook to provide digital literacy programme for women

Social networking mega giant Facebook on Wednesday said it has joined hands with National Commission for Women (NCW) to launch a digital literacy programme in collaboration with the Cyber Peace Foundation (CPF).
 

 Included as part of the digital literacy programme pilot, awareness training will be conducted for 60,000 women in universities across major cities in Haryana, Delhi-NCR, Manipur, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu over a one-year period, Facebook said in a statement.

These interactive sessions will give training on safe and responsible use of the internet, social media and email and will enable trainees to differentiate between credible and questionable information, it added.

The training will be conducted in all local languages.

"In today's internet age, opportunities for women are immense...However, with more women going online, NCW has witnessed a surge in cyber crime related complaints registered at the commission in the past three years - this trend is worrying," Rekha Sharma, chairperson (I/C) of NCW, said.

Cyber Peace Foundation (CPF) President Vineet Kumar provided similar views.

"Women are especially vulnerable to cybercrimes, false news, hate speech and other forms of cyber bullying which can have a disastrous effect on them," Kumar said.

CPF's volunteers can effectively work with womens' groups to educate them and raise awareness on online safety, he added.

"Economies can only grow well with equal participation from women, and in today's age, this can largely happen with the free and unhindered presence of women on the internet," Facebook Public Policy Director (India, South and Central Asia) Ankhi Das said.

"This naturally calls for the protection of women when they are online in a manner which reassures and enables them to freely express themselves and share their views," Das added.