Tower Hamlets Council launched its new Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) and Women’s Safety Strategy at Cabinet last week.

VAWG covers all kinds of violence and crimes against women and girls, ranging from stalking and harassment, domestic abuse, rape and other sexual abuse crimes.

Statistics about gender-based crime in Tower Hamlets came out in the VAWG and Women’s Safety Strategy 2024-2029, Summer version, including:

• 490 domestic abuse cases investigated and resolved in 2023.
• 821 sexual offences reported to police in 2023-2024.
• 83% of female residents surveyed in 2023 experienced being catcalled, making them feel unsafe.

The council plans to focus on female safety in public areas, such as streets and parks to make the borough feel welcoming and safe.

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows about 75% of victims of domestic violence in England and Wales are women. For example in 2023, out of the 2.1 million people over the age of 16 that experienced domestic abuse, 1.4 million were women and about 750,000 were men. The gender breakdown was not available for the year 2021.

The council says it is taking steps to prevent violence and abuse through education, by strengthening early intervention, providing long term impact of victims, helping children who have experienced abuse, and more.

Heidi Riedel, the CEO of Women’s Trust told EastLondonLines: “We welcome the London Borough of Tower Hamlets’ commitment to tackling violence against women and girls in the borough.

“Domestic abuse is one of the leading causes of depression in UK women and has strong links to substance misuse and suicide, and it can affect women at work. But there is limited access to mental health support for survivors across the UK and more needs to be done to address this at national and local policy level.

“We call on all local authorities and central government to adopt an integrated approach taking survivors’ housing, financial, childcare, legal, health and mental health into account to make sure survivors are not made even more vulnerable by a lack of access to the basic needs that will help them to rebuild their lives.

In November, the council will be holding events and activities around raising awareness and tackling VAWG, which includes White Ribbon Day on November 25, and 16 days of activism regarding gender-based violence.

White Ribbon says that violence must be addressed: “Starting with men, we must address the attitudes and behaviours that contribute to a fear of violence for women in their day-to-day lives.”

White Ribbon Day encourages “men to hold themselves accountable to women, and to each other, so we can affect positive behaviour change to transform harmful cultures.”

Tower Hamlets will be engaging with staff, including with the council’s new VAWG Champion, Corporate Director for Health and Adult Social Care, Georgia Chimbani.