How safe is Delhi for its women?

 

 

Activists audit safety from the perspective of women commuters

Like lakhs of other women, Swati Singh wrapped her scarf a little tighter around the head as she waited at the Vasant Vihar bus stop on Tuesday evening.

A banker in GK-II, she needs to change three buses to get home to Kishanganj. “I do get nervous, but thankfully nothing bad has happened to me yet,” she said.

Two years to the day after the gang-rape of a young physiotherapy student aboard a bus that she boarded one stop away from Ms. Singh’s, 60 women representing diverse women’s groups fanned out across the city to audit its public safety from the perspective of women commuters.

Noting their observations using a mobile app called SafetiPin, the groups, led by Jagori, will collect between 300 – 400 data points and present them to Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung on Friday.

On Tuesday evening, women’s rights activists took buses, trains and taxis interviewing women commuters. Senior lawyers Indira Jaising and Vrinda Grover, Jagori director Suneeta Dhar, SafetiPin co-founder Kalpana Viswanath, All India Progressive Women’s Association secretary Kavita Krishnan and National Federation of Indian Women general-secretary Annie Raja were some of the activists who were part of the audit.

At Yamuna Bank metro station, Ms. Grover walked out of the station with Mahima Bhattarai, who works at a production house in Gurgaon, along the fairly deserted stretch to her house. But Ms. Bhattarai was undaunted.

“I call my family if I’m going to be late, but otherwise I don’t feel scared walking alone. The metro has made life easy and made working possible,” she said.

At the same station, another commuter, who requested anonymity, was less confident.

“Even if my husband is at work, I wait at the station for as long as it takes for him to pick me up. Going home alone after dark is out of the question,” she said.

However, many women who used the metro had positive stories.

Across the city in Vasant Vihar, 50-year-old Lucy, who is part of the housekeeping staff in a hotel and travels by bus, was far less positive.

“The frequency of buses reduces after 8.30 p.m. and the road, especially during winter, becomes deserted.  Sometimes it feels like women really need to have a bodyguard to get anywhere after dark,” she said. 

Similar audits were also conducted near Shanti Niketan and Civil Lines. “The idea is to scientifically collect data from women commuters and make observations about the availability of public infrastructure so that we can engage constructively with the government,” Suneeta Dhar said.

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