Very often there are social issues that we feel strongly about. Reading about it can ignite deep empathy and concern, and yet we either lack the knowledge, ability or motivation to take action. I have been feeling this way for the last few years about the increasing sexual violence against women, in India, specially when it occurs within my surroundings in my hometown of Mumbai.  When you read horrific tales of abuse everyday within your extended community, and remain passive, it starts to build frustration and a sense of powerlessness.

Many of us feel solving pervasive social challenges are beyond our reach. Fortunately, being exposed to human centered design and collaborative and crowd-sourced ways of problem solving have encouraged me to feel differently. Service design makes me believe in the individual potential of each one of us to solve any problem. It also motivates me to believe that we cannot accept things the way there are – and that innovation is limitless. Of course larger challenges need more minds to come together, and so OpenIdeo offers a a well designed open source platform that is easy to use and facilities problem solving and innovation through sharing.

I started today by participating in OpenIdeo’s women’s safety challenge. You don’t need to be a designer to participate – just tap your passion and empathy and get started. Even though a problem like sexual violence seems so deep rooted and complex, every little idea and contribution can take us one step closer to facilitating social change. And perhaps also help to relieve just a bit of that sense of helplessness and frustration.