DNA campaign: How safe are DTC buses for women?

The AAP, in its manifesto, had promised to install CCTVs and deploy marshalls in all the public transport

Updated : Feb 14, 2018, 05:30 AM IST

DNA campaign: How safe are DTC buses for women?

1) Women say they feel government can do lot more to fix the gaps in terms of safety of women in public transport 2) and 3) AAP government’s promise of marshals on DTC buses falls flat. There were no marshals present in the buses here.

It was nothing less than a nightmare for 29-year-old Rakshita Gupta earlier this year while she had gotten late from work and missed her routine bus from the ITO bus stand and had to take another state-run bus.

She was one of the few women on board and a bunch of men first stared and then passed lewd comments at her after which she asked the conductor to stop the bus.

"While the conductor did come to help and tried to reason with the men, they did not stop. I finally decided to get down and take an auto from the next stop. There was no bus marshal or any panic button to raise an alarm in the bus," she said.

Even as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is celebrating its three years of governance in the Capital, women still feel unsafe in the city even after the party had promised to take steps for ensuring their safety. The AAP, in its manifesto, had promised to install CCTVs and deploy marshalls in all the public transport, however, surveillance cameras were installed only in three to four Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses, which were put up on a pilot basis, sources said.

The issue assumes importance in light of yesterday's incident of a Delhi University student being molested by a man sitting next to her in a DTC bus while she video recorded the act.

The DTC fleet has around 5,400 buses while there are 1600 cluster-run buses, which are managed by the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS).

While the Delhi government maintains that CCTVs were installed on 200 buses on Sarojini Nagar and Rajghat depots, the records of footage from these buses are not available with the Central Control Room managed by the Transport Department.

The AAP government has deployed around 2,800 marshalls on DTC buses in two shifts during the day, however, it is difficult to spot them on duty. Besides, officials said, without any training and weapon, there is nothing much they can do either.

"The home guards were given basic training as bus marshalls. However, they do not have a network or access to police. There is no weapon and also they are not sensitised for acting against such crimes. What can still be a deterrent is CCTVs having a face-recognition system," said a senior official.

However, when asked DTC officials, said that the government is planning to install CCTVs, panic buttons and Wi-Fi in all the buses and the project is in the works.

Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot had recently made it mandatory for private bus operators seeking new licenses to have GPS and CCTVs installed in vehicles.

Despite attempts, Gahlot was not available for comments.

PAST CASES:

June 18, 2017: Delhi Police detained a 56-year-old man from the Indira Gandhi International Airport’s domestic terminal for allegedly harassing a woman passenger on a flight. A 44-year-old woman, a native of Hyderabad, who was on an IndiGo flight to Delhi, alleged that the man made “lewd gestures” towards her. After she complained to an air hostess, she was given a separate seat, police said.

December 3, 2017: A 32-year-old woman was molested by a man who also masturbated in front of her and fled after snatching her phone in Lutyens’ Delhi.