Safecity and Badal Ja, two organisations, conducted the first safety sprawl to review street problems for Mumbaikars.
Over 20 concerned strangers gathered in Nana Nani park in Andheri on Saturday and participated in the first safety sprawl conducted by Safecity and Badal Ja, two organisations. Each of the volunteers was put in groups which roamed around 10 streets in the area with a route map and an audit print sheet which had to be filled during the walk. They had to interview three people on the way about missing street infrastructure (such as street-lights) and the sexual offences committed within those 10 streets alone.
While one group found 14 street-lights not functioning on their route, the other group spoke of how the sense of safety among women on the road was ironic. Nearly everyone the group spoke to knew at least one person who had been sexually harrassed in the area but still found it relatively safe.
"I asked a girl if she felt safe and she said yes, but when I asked her if it would be safe if I had to take this route at 10 pm in the night, she vehemently said no. The girls all of us interviewed spoke of the prostitutes turning up at a street corner after 10 pm, stalkers, masturbators, oglers and more," said Caitlin Marinelli said.
Marinelli, 27, is the co-founder of Badal Ja organisation, a platform to support gender justice in Mumbai, with a blog and social media focusing on positive news and pathways to action, and events to mobilize individuals to take small steps towards gender equality.
The group found that people were afraid of having their names known. What also surprised them was the importance of street-lights in feeling safe. They were taught how to check the number of the light poles and call up the BMC helpline 1619 to report the issue. Many did not know about Advanced locality management (ALM) committees that can hold local government systems like the BMC and police accountable.
Elsamarie D'Silva, managing director and co-founder of Safecity, an online crowd map that documents sexual harassment at public places, also went on one of the routes and interviewed a woman who seemed to live in the nearby slums. She found that the woman had stopped a man from raping a 5-year-old girl in the area. "The woman felt good that someone cared about her safety and that someone is taking some action," she said.
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