The slightest sound is enough to startle Rituja Bodake (19), the medical student who was pushed out of a Harbour local near Juinagar station last week.
Ms. Bodake is in the Intensive Care Unit of MGM Hospital, Vashi with multiple injuries, the most severe being an injury on her face for which she required surgery. But more than these, her parents are worried about the mental scars. “She seems to have a phobia,” says her father Dilip Bodake. “I don’t know if she will gather the courage to travel by train again. And even if she does, I don’t know if I can be calm when she is out there alone.”
On December 2, Ms. Bodake was on a Vashi-bound train at around 11.20 pm when she was accosted by a youth who took away her earrings, two mobile phones and her bag. But as Ms. Bodake attempted to fight back, she was pushed out of the compartment. Fortuitously, her injuries were not life-threatening as the train had slowed down by then.
Another incident on a train, and yet again, the city asks: has Mumbai lost its claim to be one of the country’s safest cities for women? More so, women commuters? From robberies, molestation, incidents of flashing and even rape some years ago, our trains have seen them all in women’s compartments.
Riddhi Sheth (29), a business development manager in a city multinational who till a few years ago regularly took the train from her home in Santacruz, believes women have been left to their devices by a system that has clearly failed them.
“The offenders have no fear of the law or the repercussions of breaking the law,” says Ms Sheth. Like all Mumbaikars, Ms. Sheth too asks questions that may have no immediate answers: In the recent Juinagar incident, were there enough CCTV cameras on the train and on the station platform? “And if there were, was the outcome of such incidents in the past enough of a deterrent?”
In the past, Ms. Sheth has had her tryst with molesters on railway platforms: she would often chase them and create a scene to break their anonymity. At times, a policeman would come to her aid and take the case further. “But on most other occasions, I would end it there. How many times should I be pursuing a case with the police station?” she says. Ms. Sheth’s parents too deterred her from confronting criminals, and she chose the safer route: she now drives to work. “I did it for my sanity. I have not been taking public transport for the past five years. This way, I am not out on the street fighting a molester every day,” she says.
Ms. Sheth, and many others like her, have been systematically edged out of public transport in Mumbai, but the authorities say, “there’s only do much we can do”. The Government Railway Police, which is responsible for maintaining safety in Railway premises, has been saying the same thing for years: “Implement better access control”. In simple terms, it means restricting access to railway stations, like on the Metro, where only commuters with a ticket can swipe and enter.
Railway stations are accessible from several exits as well as railway tracks, which makes it hard to keep a check on the kind of people entering stations and boarding trains. A senior GRP officer says, on condition of anonymity, “Fleeing after committing a crime is equally easy. Time and again, we have written to the Railway administration seeking better access control but this has not been done yet.”
Funding and manpower are also limitations, and these need to be addressed at a policy level. Half the GRP’s funding for reinforcements comes from the state Home Department while the other half comes from the Railways. While the Home Department is willing to provide funds for certain basic requirements, funds are not forthcoming from the Railways, says the officer.
“The GRP's manpower has not increased since 1982. We are covering 138 stations round the clock with a strength of 3,700 personnel,” says another officer on condition of anonymity.
And then there are the turf wars. The GRP controls platforms and trains, while Railway property, including tracks, come under the Railway Protection Force (RPF). Commuters say the GRP and the RPF pass the buck when they go to register complaints, causing a delay in registration as well as detection.
Still, serious crimes on trains have decreased, says the GRP official. While there is no separate category for crimes against women on local trains, the Government Railway Police in Maharashtra registered 5,865 cases under the Indian Penal Code in 2014, 7,556 cases in 2015 and 7,684 cases in 2016. Maharashtra GRP recorded a 6.1% crime rate and ranked third in the country in this category.
Mumbai Railway Police Commissioner Niket Kaushik says a GRP constable is posted in at least three bogies, including ladies’ compartments of suburban trains from 9 pm to 6 am every day. “Even in the crimes on local trains, the detection rate is at 100%. All the recent cases that were registered have been solved,” he says.
Over the past few years, the GRP has strengthened its information network among vendors and hawkers at railway stations as well as among ground-level railway workers, says the officer quoted earlier. Studying the behavioural patterns of repeat offenders helps too. Says an officer with the Railway Police Crime Branch, “They tend to return to haunt stations and trains looking for potential victims and are known faces among our informants.”
Besides, says Mr. Kaushik, a commuter helpline — 1512 — was unveiled on October 2 this year. “Commuters’ calls are directed to a control room which ensures that the nearest policeman is sent to their location immediately,” says Mr. Kaushik.
Commuters, however, testify that reaching a helpline is not as easy as it is drummed up to be. Says Dipesh Tank, who started War against Railway Rowdies with his friends a few years ago, “When I spot a person harassing a woman, I immediately call the railway helpline. Often, the mobile network on the train is poor. When I do get connected, they ask questions like, ‘Which coach, which station and what time did the train start from a particular station?' Most commuters rarely have this information handy. And by this time, the offender has escaped.”
Mr. Tank has been asking Railway authorities to name suburban local coaches like those on long-distance trains, and introduce police patrolling inside locals. Even a basic numbering of coaches can help in registering a complaint and for a policeman to trace the offender.
Having a visible police presence is also a deterrent: reporting of the crime will increase, more offenders will get caught and gradually, these events will reduce, he says. “Since such initiatives are not being taken, an offender who harasses women in Dadar will go ahead and do the same thing in Dahisar and then in Badlapur. Not getting caught only adds to his confidence.”
Mr Tank pins down daily harassment of women to “the lack of innovation from the authorities in changing times.” About two years ago, when his complaints fell on deaf ears, Mr. Tank purchased a spy camera that came with goggles. He travels across the city wearing the glasses and recording crimes, most of them against women. Due to his efforts, 140 offences have been registered in the period.
The larger issue here is the gradual curtailing of women’s freedom to go where and how they wish to; excluding them from public spaces.
A 2016 report by NGO Akshara titled, ‘Empowering Women’s Mobility’, says, “Women’s daily mobility is so hampered by the threat of violence and sexual harassment that their decisions, livelihoods and participation in life around them is either restricted or continuously altered.” In barely two years (2014-2015), the report said, there was a 43% rise in rapes and a 165% rise in kidnappings of women in Mumbai.
What is changing?
But what has changed in Mumbai over the years that is making the city increasingly unsafe for women? Sameera Khan, co-author of 'Why Loiter', that chronicles the exclusions and negotiations that women encounter in the nation’s urban public spaces, believes the answer is complex. "We cannot look at women's safety in exclusion to other social, political and economic changes that have taken place in the city”. She points to a time when mill workers travelled after completing late night shifts and bar dancers would also leave late at night. “A woman travelling late at night in public transport would perennially have people travelling along with her. Gradually, as mills closed down and the bar dancers were excommunicated on moral grounds, this atmosphere changed. Now the new workers in service industries like the BPOs go home in private transport,” says Ms Khan. Mumbai was earlier a city of ‘mixed zones’ planning and usage — a residential building would have offices and shops downstairs or in the same areas. “But as we separate commercial and residential areas and mark some areas as exclusively office areas such as Bandra Kurla Complex, we create spaces that empty out at night. This harms the safety of not just women but every person. These are areas where life stops at some point of time and this makes them appear more secluded and fearful, particularly at night,” she says.
Prageeyaa Khanna, head of gender advocacy at nonprofit SheSays, believes crime against women has nothing to do with the city per se. It’s in the culture: instead of restricting a possible offender, the victim is curbed. “It is ‘we’ who contribute to our surrounding. These crimes are deeply rooted in the way our men and women have been raised, the culture, the quality of education and the fear of the law,” she says.
Sensitisation of people like shopkeepers and hawkers can go a long way in making it a safe city for women. Ms. Khan says the recent clampdown on hawkers is an example of wiping out the ‘friendly eyes on the street’. “Clean sanitised streets do not ensure safety or make us feel more secure. More people do. Better public transport does. Also as we make our cities more exclusive and ignore the interests of the poor and maginalised, we are encouraging more dangerous division between people, and this makes us all feel unsafe.” According to Ms Khan, along with the nature of the city, other aspects have changed too. “We have more women on the streets now so we may see more incidences taking place. But more women are also reporting crimes,” she says. "Women are finding their voice and that is a good thing."
Women’s safety is also closely linked with infrastructure. Street lights being locked or in some areas non-existent, apart from multiple levels of parking, give women an “unsafe feeling”. In terms of transport, someone like a BEST conductor and a driver should be able to help when needed (see box). Then of course, there is need for improved policing and justice, “where women can comfortably complain and get help,” says Nandita Shah, Co-director of Akshara. The NGO will soon release an audit of over 3,000 people from all walks of life — students, office-goers and so on, in the G and M wards, which will look at 10 components of safety including street lights, eyes of streets, the feeling of fear due to groups of people in street corners.
Ms. Shah says the government needs to take a holistic approach to `the issue of women's safety by bringing in different agencies and people together. “The foremost aspect that has to be looked at is prevention. It can be done by changing mindsets of men, empowering women, sensitising 'eyes of the streets'.”
How can we make our city safer for women?
The Confederation of Indian Industry and Indian Women Network recently sent in recommendations for a safe and secure, women-friendly city.
SAFER PUBLIC TRANSPORT:
Have surveillance cameras on buses
Woman conductors or guards will instill a sense of confidence and safety
Auto and taxi meters should be enabled with GPS and SOS buttons
Every bus should have a few panic buttons which alerts the police control room
POLICE INTERVENTION:
Police patrolling must be intensified
Activate police stations: For instance, FIRs have to be properly registered, followed by filing of chargesheet. Every police station should have sufficient and prompt police personnel and communication systems
Safety should be ensured within the police department from the lowest rungs in the ladder. Recruiting more women in the police service is also a progressive step towards safety and empowerment
INFRASTRUCTURE:
Provide clean, covered and safe bathrooms and toilets for women in and around public places like bus stands and railway stations. Have women staffing them
Beef up street lighting throughout the city
Urban design and planning can have an impact on women’s experience of safety. For example, use of spaces for a diversity of purposes. The concept of ‘eyes on the street’ is the only solution to lack of safety, rather than getting people off the streets
Give protection in public parks and multilevel parking areas
Grant access to safe public telephone booths
