A button on public transport to contact the gender violence hotline, purple points at major events, and prevention and response training, are among the 220 actions promoted by the Catalan Generalitat government.

On Monday, the Catalan Generalitat government presented the first National Plan against Gender Violence, a strategy including 222 specific actions and a budget of 43 million euros that involves all of society. The Government thus intends to create a national Purple Network involving businesses, transport, and neighbourhood and cultural spaces through education so everyone knows how to act when faced with a case of gender violence. “We must all take responsibility, and we must especially open our eyes to be aware of how to act and to take sides before any form of sexist violence,” said the Minister for Equality and Feminisms, Tània Verge.

With the aim of involving the whole of society as a form of prevention, and also to offer better responses, the Plan envisages measures such as the incorporation of a purple button on public transport to contact the gender violence hotline direct (900 900 120), or promoting on-demand stops on buses that take routes through lonely neighbourhoods.

The Generalitat government has also announced measures in other areas, like universities which would include updates to the protocols; social services, with a territorial network of key professionals; or education and leisure through instruction.

The minister emphasized the importance of the plan for prevention, and assured that “it is here to stay. It represents a turning point in the way the government and the country are to face this marathon to eradicate gender-based violence,” said Ms Verge, in the same week as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on 25 November.