T hough a decade has passed since the Nirbhaya tragedy, steps to make travelling by public transport safe for women remain woefully inadequate in our country. In an attempt to provide better safety to women travelling in the city, Kolkata Police has recently launched an initiative titled ‘This Car Respects Women’. It aims to sensitise drivers of public vehicles to be the first responders in cases of offences against women that are often committed in their vehicles or in their vicinity.
As part of this new initiative and to mark International Women’s Day, Thakurpukur Traffic Guard of Kolkata Police invited writer and marketing consultant Jeena Mitra Banik to address auto, app cab and taxi drivers on how to help, react and respond to women passengers in need. During the session, drivers were encouraged to share stories on the cases of harassment and violence against women that they had witnessed while on duty. Through a process of discussions with them based on their eyewitness accounts, Mitra Banik presented a number of guidelines for drivers.
Firstly, she insisted that drivers be polite and professional in their attitude to lady passengers. If a lone lady passenger abuses a driver, then the first response of the driver should be to defuse and dissolve the matter rather than trying to escalate it. An app cab driver may also report the passenger. If a woman makes unreasonable demands to a driver to exceed speed limits, the driver should politely remind her of traffic rules and decline to break the law. However, if a woman passenger faces any emergency situation while in his vehicle or in the street, then it is the first priority of the driver to help her. Women in inebriated states may be given a lift home by drivers, as long as they pose no threat to co-passengers or the driver himself, in which case the driver should approach the nearest cop for help. In case of a serious offence where a male co-passenger has misbehaved with a lady inside a shared taxi or app cab or auto, the driver should promptly approach the nearest cop to take charge, instead of trying to handle it himself. If a driver finds a woman being stalked or stranded alone in an unsafe area, the driver should immediately offer to drive her to a safe location. Drivers were also urged not to hesitate to drive beyond their permit areas in case of emergencies, and were assured police support and cooperation in cases where women were in distress.
As a mark of his commitment to the initiative, assistant commissioner of police, traffic, Behala division, Aloke Sanyal shared his phone number with the drivers in the area so that they could get in touch with him for help at any time of the day. He also assured them of help against harassment by any member of the police force or if they were stopped from helping out a woman passenger in distress.
Guest speaker Jeena Mitra Banik and the hosts posed for a click with the audience after the interactive session
Jeena Mitra Banik was felicitated by Aloke Sanyal as part of Kolkata Police’s International Women’s Day celebrations