In the last two weeks there have been several new articles and initiatives around sexual harassment on public transportation. Here’s a sampling:
GLOBAL:
YouGov polling conducted in 16 major cities worldwide asked participants about how safe they feel at night, their experiences with verbal harassment and physical abuse, the public response to abuse, their confidence in authorities, and their overall feelings of safety in the city. They then ranked the 16 cities safest (New York City) to least safe (Bogota). Read more here.
ENGLAND:
“In September 2013 London launched Project Guardian, a collaborative effort by the British Transport Police, the Metropolitan Police, the City of London Police and Transport for London, to boost levels of reporting of sexual offences.
The Everyday Sexism Project, the End Violence Against Women coalition and Hollaback advised the police on the project, which saw 2000 officers receive special training and 120 officers – both in uniform and plain clothes – carry out daily patrols on the transport network. Since the launch of the initiative, there has been a 20% increase in the reporting of sexual offences, and a 32% increase in the number of cases where offenders have been charged or summoned.”
FRANCE:
Osez le Féminisme (Dare Feminism) launched a campaign on Friday in support of women’s right to be un-harassed on public transportation in Paris
“‘When you are a woman on the subway in Paris, you are often the victim of different types of sexual aggression […] We have done a study in the metro this summer in Paris, and the study showed that three out of four women were adapting their behaviour or their clothes and their way of dressing when they were going to take the metro.’
The group asks that the RATP, the French public transportation operator, will join in the fight against gender-based violence.”
INDIA:
“Thus was born Safe Safar, a campaign started in 2010, to make travel in autorickshaws in Lucknow safe for women, by creating awareness among auto drivers. The campaign blossomed into a full-fledged, successful project that was awarded the IIM-L Manfest Prerna Fellowship Award-2013 by IIM-Lucknow.
“Our survey prior to the campaign revealed that while about 97 per cent of women were sexually harassed at some point of time while travelling in autorickshaws, drivers often chose not to stand up against the crime, considering it none of their business. So, we decided to address the crime at its root by making the driver aware,” says Zeeshan, 30, a postgraduate in social work, who has been extensively working on gender and youth-centric issues for the past four years.
Besides sensitising auto-drivers to play a pro-active role in ensuring security of women commuters, the campaign involved persuading them to stop playing pulsating music and removing pictures of scantily clad women from their vehicles.
Spanning two successful years, the campaign reached out to over 2,000 auto-rickshaw drivers while training 350 of them. Owing to its success, Zeeshan converted it into a full-time programme under his NGO Yeh Ek Soch, which he runs along with partner Shariq Ahmad.”
