Public Transport and Women Safety

Dr. Richa Chowdhary Associate Professor University of Delhi

Public transport is an essential service that provides individuals with access to work, to an education and to all of life’s opportunities. And yet, the access of many women and girls to safe public transport options is threatened by the potential of being assaulted or victimised. Worse still, the freedom of travel provided by transit has been abused by those who are engaged in human trafficking. These threats exist in small towns and large cities across nations. Thus, Women’s Safety in Public Transport is one of the key challenges across the globe. The travel needs of men and women are different. In developing countries such as India, many women are forced to remain at home owing to lack of safer transportation option. It is also seen that often times, women base their travelling choices upon the availability of transport facilities hindering their growth. Women often turn down employment opportunities further away from home for lower paying jobs because public transportation is either unreliable or unaffordable.

Women often "chain" their activities by combining multiple stops and destinations within a single, longer trip as a result of their household and caretaking responsibilities. This makes it costlier for women to use public transport, since they may have to pay for numerous single-fare, one-way tickets throughout a chained trip. After the unfortunate Nirbhaya Case in 2011, women have become even more anxious about travelling at odd hours. However, Transport operators in India are taking various measures to make public transport safe, including:

Installation of CCTV Cameras and Live GPS Tracking Reserving First Coach for ladies in Delhi Metro Operating special Ladies Buses and dedicated cab fleet (She Taxi) Creation of Safety Apps (Himmat –Delhi Police) Separated sections for women in the buses and reserved seats. Appointment of bus marshals by Delhi government to look into matters ofwomen safety.

In addition to affordable and reliable public transport, waiting areas, such as accessible bus stops, auto stands, and areas outside Metro stations need to be well lit with well-organised last-mile transit options around bus stops and Metro stations.

The need for safe and efficient first and last-mile connectivity is critical. Women and girls may reach Metro stations and bus stops safely, but unless they can reach their destination safely as well, their mobility will continue to be restricted.

Despite such initiatives there is need for Police, transport agencies, and advocacy organizations need to collaborate and coordinate with one another to reduce sexual harassment and violence in public transport, because individual and isolated initiatives—like CCTV cameras—are not enough on their own.

Instead, transport agencies need to measure, plan, implement, monitor, evaluate, and share insights in order to make long-term progress and deliver concrete improvements. This requires clearly allocating responsibilities and identifying individuals so that ideas and initiatives are successfully implemented.

Thereby safe public transit for women and girls must be based on the recognition of women’s and girls’ distinct roles, needs and experiences. In order for women to be able to exercise their right to freedom of movement in cities, public transportation systems should address existing mobility barriers.

There is a pressing need for locallyadapted gender-sensitive transport strategies that combat the bias towards men’s needs in terms of variables such as route trajectories and frequencies.

Most importantly, now the PPP THEORY (public, people, participation)will do the justice, and some steps towards environmental challenges should be taken care ofalso by the government as well as by us, for better future outcomes.