Shining a Light on Gender Equality

The Asia Foundation’s Lotus Leadership Awards recognize outstanding individuals and organizations for their contributions towards women’s and girls’ empowerment in Asia. 2019 Lotus Leadership Award honoree, Safetipin, is an innovative social enterprise making a critical difference in the lives of women. In the aftermath of the infamous rape and death of “Nirbhaya” in December 2012 in Delhi, Dr. Kalpana Viswanath and Ashish Basu co-founded SafetiPin as a call to action. The free apps, My SafetiPin and SafetiPin Nite, crowdsource safety data about public spaces. The data is available to users and shared with city governments around the world to make concrete changes to improve women’s safety and mobility. Now in more than 44 cities in over 10 countries, SafetiPin continues to expand globally with support from the Lotus Circle.