Every day, newspapers and televisions remind us of the problems of uncontrolled street crimes where no individual is safe and where women are more vulnerable. Women and adolescent girls face harassment and violence as they go about their daily routines, whether on city streets, in buses and trains or in their own neighbourhoods. As many as 35 per cent of women and girls globally experience some form of physical and or sexual violence in their lifetime with up to seven in ten women facing this abuse in some countries.
To raise awareness and trigger action to end this scourge, the UN observes International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25. This year, the United Nations’ Campaign UNITE to End Violence against Women invites everybody to “Orange their Neighbourhood”, take the UNITE campaign to local streets, shops and businesses, and organise “Orange Events” in their neighbourhoods. The initiative is aimed to create the symbolic image of a world free from violence against women. The colour orange aims at uniting the theme which runs through all events as one of the official colours of the UNITE campaign, and as a bright and optimistic colour, representative of a world free from violence against women and girls.
Built-environment has a critical role in crime control. Special design features in city planning, neighbourhoods and individual buildings can reduce criminal activity. Crime prevention through physical design is an urban planning and design consideration which integrates crime prevention with neighbourhood design and urban development. Essentially, it is a comprehensive design approach that combines different techniques of crime prevention with existing and newly developed theories and techniques. This will not only prevent the crime but also reduce the fear of crime.
A neighbourhood is a geographically localised community. The neighbourhood is the scale at which communal standards of behaviour are first formed. In general, it is the natural extension of individual and family territoriality that begins at home. If crime cannot be controlled at the neighbourhood, it will spread to the entire city. Every city has its intimate inner patterns: the streets, squares and important landmarks. Besides, urban transformation is a habitual process in the evolution of cities. The changes in social and economic processes always involve an almost urban need to update or modernise or simply transform cities.
Perry’s name is most commonly associated with the notion of the neighbourhood design. He described the Neighbourhood unit as that populated area which would require and support an elementary school with an enrolment of between 1,000 and 1,200 pupils. This would mean a population of between 5,000 and 6,000. Developed as a low density dwelling unit with a population of 10 families per acre, the Neighbourhood unit would occupy around 160 acres and have a shape which would render it necessary for any child to walk a distance of not more than one-quarter mile to school. Those sections or neighbourhoods have some particular physical or social characteristics that distinguish them from the rest of the settlement. The clustering of these neighbourhoods has formed towns, villages and cities. The Neighbourhood unit has formed the basis of planning of most of the first planned new towns in India like Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar and Gandhinagar.
In many areas, multi-family housing consumes the remaining open space and there are increasing competition for neighbourhood spaces and public services as the population increases. These changes drew people from larger geographic areas and led to uncontrolled use of and movement through their neighbourhood. Where the neighbourhood was once primarily residential in character, other land uses competed for limited services such as streets, parks, shops, etc. This, in turn, contributed to an eventual breakdown of the semi-private nature of the neighbourhood. The new uses provided the reason and encouragement for potential offenders to come and commit crimes. Individual competition, together with land use competition and the unlimited flow of strangers, contributed to the breakdown of the residents’ ability to distinguish between neighbour and nonresident. This provided a setting for increased crimes. In response to these increasing crimes and individual environmental competition, the resident began to feel isolated and afraid.
The need of safety is an important aspect of city planning. However, crime and fear of crime can affect the way a city works as well the attractiveness and functioning of some urban areas. When people feel threatened, they alter their lifestyle and, consequently, the ways they use the city on a daily basis. Many do not go out in the evening, do not use public transport, do not use public spaces and shut themselves in gated communities.
A complex range of factors contribute to insecurity in the city. It also depends on the way in which cities are planned, designed and built; the way in which people identify themselves with the environment which they live in, and the way in which urban spaces are looked after and managed. The layout and organisation of urban spaces influence their level of security: they can contribute to making them safer, but they can also contribute to making them more dangerous. A good or bad layout can contribute to making a city more or less safe.
The layout of a new development should allow it to be walked through safely day and night by creating clear routes provided with natural surveillance. The layout should have a clear organisation and provide easy orientation for all users.
Using zoning laws to shape the type of development and activity that occur in a neighbourhood may be one way to reduce crime. There is a need to execute more research on the relationship between land-use law, the built environment and crime, particularly in high-crime areas. Architects and urban designers should do environmental mapping of space for users to know how the users will accept the new spaces they design. The basic principles of good governance must find a direct application in any urban safety strategy, aimed at reducing and preventing common problems of crime and insecurity. Besides, a proper management of city streets and public spaces can ensure a safe neighbourhood for women.
(Dr Mayarani Praharaj teaches at the Department of Architecture, College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar)