lieutenant Governor (l-G) Anil Baijal on Friday released a report on women safety in the national Capital. The report prepared by the six-member committee reveals the important factors and issues such as absence of police patrolling , lack of public toilets for woman, poor public spaces and transport, unsafe bus stands, poor lighting, absence of proper dustbins for menstrual waste disposal, inadequate electricity connections, poor lighting and uneven roads make the city unsafe for the woman.
The six member committee constituted in 2017 by lG Baijal comprising of Special Commissioner of Police (Women Safety), Airport and Modernisation Sanjay Baniwal, Krishna Menon, Professor, Gender Studies and Dean at the School of Human Studies, Amberdkar University, Professor Pamela Singh of Delhi University, Kalpana Vishwanath, the co-founder of Safetypin App, Nimesh Desai, Member of Manas Foundation and OP Mishra, Additional Secretary with Delhi Government.
The committee further gave a call to all the other departments such as Municipal Corporations, Delhi Transport Corporations (DTC), Public Works Department, Delhi Metro and so on to unite and work together to make the capital a safer city for the woman.
“law and enforcement is always not the solution for all the problems. It is not only my job in the end of the day. Everyone should come together to raise questions on the things that is lacking in the society. But most of the time the departments itself fights like this is my zone, this is not our work, construction only comes under our section and so on. So what we are saying that join the hands to build a safe society,” said Baniwal.
The report further gave recommendations for proper infrastructure, increasing of street lights, improving last mile connectivity, systematic and user friendly transports outside metros, installment of helpline numbers directly linked to the police control room inside the bus for immediate response, more public toilets for woman, CCTV cameras at bus stops, inside buses and street.
Apart from the recommendations the report also revealed shocking facts such as out of 1147 public toilets only 67 toilets are allotted for woman in the south Delhi. In the entire Karol Bagh area there is only two toilets constructed for women.
To tackle the situation in the city, lG Baijal directed to form Department-wise sub-committees that will be headed by the President Secretary of Delhi Government on specific actions to be taken by the departments/organizations concerned. He also directed the home department to review all the actions that will be taken by the respective departments in a time bound manner.