Around 80 students between the age group of 19-23 participated in a multi-site research study on gender based cyber violence, organized by IT for Change- an NGO engaged in research, policy advocacy and field practice at the intersection of digital technologies and social change, on November 17, 2018. The NGO previously had been working closely with the Bureau of Police Research and Development, the Indian Police Foundation, the Ministry of Women and Child Development and Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Ms. Nandini Chami, Deputy Director, IT for Change and the team briefed the participants about their conscious effort in conducting the survey and urged them to share precise details.

The administered questionnaire ensured anonymity of students’ personal identity and consisted of six sections which included students’ media behavior patterns, commonly visited sites, frequency of online media interaction, situation based students’ analysis, enquiry about students’ experiences of cyber violence, their reaction and responses to those difficult situations such as various factors leading to their hesitation to share their experiences and reluctance to seek help from legal/institutional support mechanisms and reasons for the responses.

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Mysuru campus, takes pride in having participated in the survey as an attempt to evolve effective institutional response to gender based cyber violence, to be conducted across 1200 women students belonging to 12 colleges in six cities in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.