Advocacy School

Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..”, comes from a line in section 1.10.32.

Pyaar Plus

Pyaar Plus is a digital toolkit about pyaar and all the pluses – from attraction to abuse – for young women and people of other marginalised genders with disabilities. And for their parents, counsellors, special educators and ecosystem. The toolkit is a collection of 7 booklets (our last one is underway!) and they aim to create a safe space for disabled individuals to gain access to information about sexuality, gender, pleasure, desire and other aspects of their bodies and relationships that they may not find anywhere else. The toolkit is an accessible multimedia resource that is available in PDF and Word formats. They are designed for self exploration (like your own personal journals) You can access all the published booklets here: https://bit.ly/PyaarPlusAllBooklets

With each booklet, we’ve been able to build space for first person stories of people with disabilities to talk about themes of identities, bodies, mental health, friendship, love, romantic love, relationships, desire and pleasure. This is because we believe that people with disabilities are the experts of their own lives. We’ve worked on building a community of role models, subject matter experts whose experiences and sharing can help young people with disabilities.

Tech Sakhi

Research shows that women accessing digital spaces face a range of abuse online from trolling on social media to harassing phone calls. Furthermore, lack of information about safety and security in the digital space limits their access and exploration of the digital space. This was also found in Point of View’s digital literacy workshops with various communities on digital literacy. This highlighted the need for more readily available information on digital safety and security, especially in regional, non-text based mediums. With this in mind, Point of View piloted TechSakhi. TechSakhi is a Hindi digital information helpline intended for women, trans, queer, and non-binary persons. Our responders answer queries on digital safety and provide support for those facing online abuse or violence. Currently, it is a phone helpful but is intended to be an omnichannel service so users can access the information through phone, whatsapp, facebook or other popular mediums they are comfortable with. TechSakhi runs Monday to Friday, 11 am to 7 pm. We provide support in the following ways:

Offer information in response to cases of digital harassment, abuse, and violence

Answer questions on using the internet safely and securely

Demystify digital security for our users

Where relevant, we provide referrals to specific service providers (e.g., for legal, mental health, and other services)