Almost a year after the horrific Delhi gangrape that raised questions about the safety of women in the national capital and across the country, a survey has found that most women perceive smaller cities to be safer from them. And they still perceive Delhi as the most unsafe city to live in despite all the measures taken.
Discussing the findings of a Hindustan Times and CNN-IBN survey on the safety of women in India’s cities, the women on a panel felt that in Mumbai a woman was still confident of getting help from bystanders while the same didn’t apply to Delhi.
Photographer Anusha Yadav argued that despite the Mumbai gangrape, India’s financial capital is still among the safest cities in India.
“My personal experience in Bombay is that people are helpful to women. You will find people beating up lechers. Women in train compartments lookout for each other. Women make sure guys who climb into women compartments get off immediately,” she said.
When asked if things were as safe as they used to be, she said, “No place is as safe as as it used to be. Crimes happen in cities across the world. In fact, walking in London at night is far more fearful than walking in Delhi at night. No place is safe 100% in the world.”
However Delhi is a different picture altogether for women, said panelists.
Kalpana Viswanath of Jagori said there is fear that something might happen when women step out in Delhi everyday.
“The fear is very high in Delhi because of incidents in last the 10-15 years. No one knows who is going to help me if I get into trouble,” Vishwanath said.
Agreeing with her, advocate MS Bhandare said, “In Delhi the culture of helping is not there. But I hope in Delhi things will change after the Nirbhaya incident. People don’t stand up for women. Women even fear going to the police because they may face harassment.”
“It is a cultural problem in Delhi. Men think they can stare, follow women and pass comments. They don’t see it as doing anything wrong at all,” Bhandare said.
When it came to confronting the perpetrator of crime, Kolkata women were outnumbered their counterparts in other cities, with 40% women saying they confronted the culprits.
Yadav said this was the same in Mumbai. “Women are not afraid of confronting men in Maharashtra. They are strong. Mumbai offers us the freedom. There is a culture of confrontation here as well,” she said.
However, in Delhi thing were different, said Shivani Singh of Hindustan Times.
“If you confront someone in Delhi, people will turn on you. On lookers too don’t support the woman who is harassed,” she said.
Infrastructure too it seemed played a major role in women’s safety, given the fact that the Delhi gangrape victim did not find proper transport and took a private bus when she was attacked.
“Transport is the prime area where a women is harassed. Though the metro has given some cohesiveness in Delhi, connectivity is still a huge issue,” Singh said.
Agreeing with that, Vishwanath said, “Research shows that lighting makes women feel much safer. And the last mile is not taken care of. You can take the metro, but you still have to walk home, it is an incomplete system.”
Meanwhile, for their own safety women do not mind carrying weapons, showed the survey. But the panelists said that it would only increase violence.
Singh pointed out that if women carrying weapons for self defence was not a viable option, but “if women are choosing this option shows how desperate they are for safety”.
“Even a pepper spray it can be used against the women herself. Carrying arms actually reduces safety,” said Vishwanath.
However, Yadav said that women have been carrying weapons of different kinds across India’s cities.
“I grew up in Jaipur and girls there would carry compass, safety pins and even knives. But weapons are not the solution. A pepper spray though may be helpful. Women should carry something that can do temporary damage, something to delay any untoward incident, but not weapons that may kill,” she said.
However, the panelists noted that there a silver lining, which was that men now have started taking part in the fight for women’s rights and safety.
“I do believe there are many men who want to change. We have to take them as allies. Not every man is a violent man. We need to begin to work with boys in fact, get them young,” said Vishwanath.
Firstpost.India
