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The alleged rape of a woman passenger by an Uber taxi driver once again spotlights the risks of India’s transport system, which fails to keep women safe. One solution: taxis driven by women for women. |
Last year, the southern state of Kerala launched ‘She Taxis’, a fleet of 40 pink taxis run by women, and fitted with wireless tracking gear and panic buttons linked to call centres.
Now the service has become a model for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to replicate nationwide, its chief executive says. “The Delhi incident shows the need for ‘She Taxis’ all over the country,” P T M Sunish said.
‘She Taxis’ has ferried 24,000 people on about 10,000 trips since November 2013. Demand so far exceeds supply that as many as half of callers have to be turned away, Sunish said.
“I feel secure and the family is satisfied,” said Aswathy Sreekumar, 25, a technology worker who has used the service for seven months, after finishing work at midnight.
“Otherwise, I keep getting calls from my parents.”
Women, especially young, urban professionals, who had come to rely on web and radio-based taxis are reassessing their safety after the Uber case.
With GPS technology, cheap and easy smartphone use and pledges of safety, taxi services had given women a sense of independence in recent years that they had not previously enjoyed as they travelled the capital and other cities.
“For a few years there, we working women in Delhi were living in a mirage of safety provided by radio taxis,” TV journalist Sunetra Choudhury said in a blog last week.
“We all loved the idea that whenever we knew we’d be late, we could pay a professional group to arrive at our office, at our friend’s, at the bar, and take us safely where we needed to go.”
“The Uber rape has killed my urge to step out and explore my city as an adult like I should.”
On Delhi’s streets, women spoke of their fear of taking public transport or hiring one of the green and yellow three-wheel rickshaws known as autos after dark, relying instead on the many cab companies.
“Men will stare at you, touch you, grope you. You have to keep looking around all the time and just be safe,” said Sonam Bahri, a 28-year-old banking executive.
Others were angry that Uber had apparently failed to conduct proper background checks on its driver who allegedly raped the woman, aged in her mid-20s, as she travelled home from a night out with friends.
“I am shocked because I didn’t expect a global company like Uber to be so casual with their approach,” said Mitali Gupta, 27, who works in India’s IT outsourcing industry.
Rising sex crimes have prompted states and small firms to launch taxi services run by women. The trend grew after the December 2012 protests over the rape of a young woman on a moving bus in New Delhi and her subsequent death.
Tougher laws and promises of better policing have proved ineffectual. India’s public transport is the fourth most dangerous in the world for women, and nighttime safety ranks second worst, a recent poll showed.
Women commuters face sexual harassment and public transport is seen as risky.
“The Uber incident reinforces that you are safer when a taxi is driven by a woman. People would be keener now,” said social activist Susieben Shah, who started Priyadarshini Taxi Service in 2010 in Mumbai. Now it aims to expand to New Delhi and the southern tech hub of Bengaluru.
Another company, Sakha Cabs, with 14 taxis in the capital, plans to expand in Jaipur and Kolkata.
Still, expansion is slow. Reluctant investors fear the tiny number of women drivers will brake future expansion, and India’s male-dominated social structure will deter aspirant drivers.
After the Uber incident India is stepping up support for such training, an official of the Ministry of Women and Child Development said. But critics say better security is the answer.
“Government always resorts to knee-jerk reactions,” said Ranjana Kumari, director of the Centre for Social Research. “Failure in law and order implementation cannot be compensated by such measures.”