Women Share Numbers Online To Help With Covid Relief, Get Harassed

Ever since the second wave of coronavirus hit hard, people have been desperate for resources like medicines, oxygen cylinders, plasma and even hospital admissions. There has been an army of individuals who have risen up to help. They've been using social media and WhatsApp to amplify requests, find resources and seek hospital beds for those in need. While the mechanism served its purposes in many cases, for some Indian women who shared their number on social media, things took an ugly turn. Many who shared their contact details on Instagram were met with vulgar and inappropriate messages as well as calls. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, who is using Twitter to amply Covid-related requests, said he would refrain from sharing phone numbers of women. Photographer Atul Kasbekar too condemned this. We spoke with Sandhya Fernandes, founder of SOSSAVIOURS, and journalist Mayank Agarwal on this disturbing trend.