A woman’s place is in a safe city
In Bandra, there are small lanes off a main road where we got more than 20 reports of chain snatching between 7-8pm.
The local police inspector said they had no reports. When we showed our data, they agreed to change the police patrol to 7-8pm.
Community members gave their secuirty guards whistles. Now, when guards begin whistling, the chain snatcher knows they have been spotted. Then the local MLA also got involved and installed CCTVs.
That area became safer. It was not only because of the CCTVs but also our data, the change in patrolling, the whistles, and the community talking to each other.
In its 2013 annual budget, the Government of India announced the allocation of INR 4,357.62 crore towards the ‘Nirbhaya Fund’ to “support initiatives protecting the dignity and ensuring safety of women in India.” A major focus of the Nirbhaya Fund is on “innovative use of technology.”
One of the biggest Government of India initiatives under the Nirbhaya Fund is the ‘Safe City Project’ in eight Indian cities for providing “safety to women in public places.”
The Safe City project budget accounts for 68% of Nirbhaya Fund.
Between 2013-2018, the Nirbhaya Fund was severely underutilised. Of the funds used, almost 73% go to Home Affairs i.e., police departments, much of it for surveillance technologies like CCTVs and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
State surveillance can have positive and negative effects, depending on context. It can normalise and worsen violence by policing women’s bodies, erasing trans/queer bodies, and enforcing gender norms to behave a certain way.
When surveillance is carried out using AI Facial Recognition Technologies, it can be highly inaccurate and prone to bias for darkskinned persons, which can lead to false identifications and false arrests. At the same time, surveillance can also be an empowering tool for marginalised communities, e.g. as evidence of innocence in cases of false accusations or when police officials refuse to believe their testimonies and experiences of violence.
The issue of surveillance for the safety of women and trans/queer people thus depends on context:
Who is being surveilled? How much control do the surveilled have over their circumstances and data?
Beyond surveillance
What can be done to ensure the safety of cisgender women and trans/queer people?
1. Upgrade civic infrastructure
Public spaces need to be made accessible. This includes making footpaths walkable and disability-friendly; ensuring that streets are well lit; and public transport is safe and accessible for women. Informal urban settlements, hawkers and street-side shops, are a form of natural surveillance. The government should stop clearing hawkers from public spaces because of these clear safety benefits.
2. Expand public awareness & police sensitization
Sex education classes should be mandated in public schools for students of all genders to learn about consent from a young age. Public awareness campaigns and art should be funded by the government to educate the masses about gendered violence and bystander interventions.
Police and state workers also need education. Police officers are known to shame, disbelieve, dismiss, coerce, and re-traumatize survivors. Street-level sex workers contend that CCTV footage is used by police to harass them and solicit bribes from their clients. This can change by investing in sensitization for police.
3. Provide survivor-centred healthcare and counselling
Institutions for providing preventive and trauma-informed healthcare for women and trans-queer communities need to be strengthened. This includes existing health services and shelters, along with treatment and first-line support. In 2013, Garima Ghars (public shelter homes for transgender persons) began shutting down due to a lack of government funding, while the Nirbhaya Fund goes underutilised and thousands of crores have been allocated to the installation of digital surveillance infrastructures.
4. Strengthen reporting mechanisms
Social workers unanimously recommended helplines, as one successful example to incentivise the reporting of gender-based violence. Beyond helplines, One Stop Centres (OSCs) were instituted by the government of India in 2015 to support women facing violence in private and public spaces. While data from the Ministry of Women and Child Development suggests that there are 769 functional OSCs across India, social activists noted that the number of OSCs in their cities was not sufficient to accommodate survivors’ needs.
5. Reinforce legal interventions
Budgetary allocations towards strengthening the implementation of legal interventions would help survivors of violence. Paralegel services should also be made more visible and strengthened to increase their accessibility to survivors.
6. Fund civil society organisations
One of the most overlooked budgetary allocations towards safe cities is the funding for grassroots civil society organisations working on gender-based violence. Not only is participation from civil society organisations rarely sought by the government in tackling gender-based violence, the funding for these organisations is being actively cut through oppressive laws such as the India’s Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
If so, here are some of the grassroots organisations making a difference right now.
Hasrate-Zindagi Mamuli
Visit our website at pointofview.org and follow our newsletter.
Are you being digitally surveilled? Call TechSakhi for support: 080 4568 5001
Kolkata
Report sexual harassment on Safecity and make your city safer for women and girls! https://webapp.safecity.in/.
Sharing your experience helps us identify patterns and create safer spaces.Your information remains anonymous.
Parcham, a Mumbai-based organisation, empowers marginalised young people through football training, employability skills, and creating inclusive public spaces.
Please contact parchamcollective@gmail. com to volunteer with Parcham or for support.
Website: http://www.parchamcollective. org
Hasrat-e-Zindagi Mamuli, a Mumbai-based non-funded Queer Trans Feminist Collective, is committed to democratic values and a society free of all violence.
Please write to hasratezindagimamuli@ gmail.com for help.
Sappho for Equality is a Kolkata-based organisation, working for the rights of lesbians, bisexual women, and trans men in Eastern India.
Please call Sappho’s helpline for support: 9831518320
Website https://www.sapphokolkata.in/
Swayam is a Kolkata-based feminist women’s rights organisation working towards ending violence and discrimination against women and girls.
Please write to swayam@swayam.info for more information.
Website https://swayam.info/
Kolkata Anandam for Equality and Justice is a grassroots organization that works with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Kothi and Hijra people in red light districts of West Bengal.
Please write to kolkataanandam@gmail.com for more information.
Website www.kolkataanandam.org
A safe city should be walkable, easy to cross, and accessible for pedestrians and caregivers.
In a safe city, I would be able to hold my lover’s hand, anytime, anywhere.
A safe city is one where women can walk fearlessly alone at any time, without needing a reason, whether for work, education, or to loiter.
In a safe city, you don’t hae to live on the streets if your family doesn’t accept you. There should be safe shelters where you can go.
I just want to walk. Tere baap ka kya jyata hai, main kahan khadi rahoon, kahan baithun, kya karoon?
In a safe city, people aren’t put to trial because of their gender, sexuality, caste or profession. Instead, offenders are put to trial.
You can move around in a safe city being who you are, wearing what you want, even cross-dressing if you like, without the fear of being violated.
What is our vision of a safe city ?
Advisory Committee
POINT OF VIEW, MUMBAI
RED DOT FOUNDATION, MUMBAI
3 KOLKATA-BASED ORGANISATIONS (ANONYMISED)
Project Lead, Research and Writing
RADHIKA RADHAKRISHNAN
Project Co-Lead and Editorial Suppport
CATHERINE D’IGNAZIO
Creative Direction BIANCHI DY
Illustrations
INDU HARIKUMAR
Transcriptions and Translations
SUNITA BHADAURIA
Research assistance
NATASHA ANSARI
Funding and support
