Three years after of the brutal gangrape of a paramedic, the national Capital has failed to provide safe infrastructure and public transport to women.
Although installation of GPS devices has been made mandatory by the Transport Department under the new permit conditions for the public service vehicles (PSVs), the Transport Department and the city police are yet to evolve a mechanism to share GPS data.
The reality, however, is in sharp contrast. The Arvind Kejriwal Government that had promised to set up a women commando force to secure girls and women especially during nights has failed in implementing it. Also, the Government’s plans to install CCTV cameras across the Capital have come a cropper.
It is evident by the imprudent action by authorities that the measures taken in the aftermath of the December 16, 2012, incident were knee-jerk reactions to appease a furious public.
Poor urban planning and limited checks on modes of transport providing end-mile connectivity leave women commuters at the mercy of unsafe modes of transport such as gramin sewa vehicles that regularly flout rules by overcrowding and not plying on routes assigned to them.
The area outside Metro station like Chhatarpur wears a deserted look post 10 pm. This is the story outside most Metro stations in the city as stringent checks are yet to be placed on the modes of transport providing end-mile connectivity.
The grisly gang-rape had exposed the perils of commuting at night. However, not much headway has been made since then. The number of buses plying during the night was increased to 200 immediately after the gangrape but the Transport Department could not install CCTV cameras.
Women commuters also complain that the home guards that were deployed for the buses on night service are not seen these days. According to the Transport Department, over a thousand home guards have been deployed in DTC buses plying during day time and the night hours.
Post December-16, 2012, there has been an alarming increase in the number of rape cases being registered in the Capital. The gravity of the situation could be judged from the fact that Delhi has recorded a staggering 300 per cent increase in rape cases.
The cases of molestation, eve-teasing, stalking and outraging the modesty have gone up considerably. The Delhi Police had registered 706 rape cases in 2012 that has shot up to 2,053 till December 15 of this year. Cases of molestation went up to 5161, this year as compared to 727 in 2012. This is a whopping over 700 per cent increase and that is a major cause of worry.
Delhi Police officers deny that the unprecedented rise in this crime has made the national Capital highly unsafe for girls and women. The rise in the figure is due to the ‘free and fair policy of registration’ adopted by the force on the instructions of the Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi.
The Commissioner of Police has ordered free and fair registration of cases. Now girls/women are coming forward and the substantial rise in the crime figures pertaining to cases against women is borne out of the changing mindset of the victims. The figures paint a grim picture nevertheless.
“There are standing instructions to the rank and file to register a case under the relevant sections once a girl/woman approaches a police station with her complaint”, a senior police official said.