By Manish Sinha, Chief Marketing Officer, STL
It is 10.45 at night. Sara is waiting for her cab to arrive. She is not feeling comfortable standing all alone on a poorly lit, deserted road of Noida. She is constantly over a call with her father who is also worried about her safety.
Such scenarios are not uncommon in cities, even today. Although public transport and safety infrastructure has evolved over the years, there is still a compelling need to make cities absolutely safe for women. Looking at the recent crime statistics, we realise that these fears are not unfounded. The data released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 30 lakh+ cases of crime were registered across the country in 2017, with around 3.8 lakh cases of crime against women. While improvements in women safety have been a priority, still only 1 in 4 women surveyed, felt absolutely safe. Let’s look at some of the challenges related to women safety
The challenge of women safety in the Indian cities
Despite the significant social and physical development in the India cities, there has been an increasing concern for safety of women.
Here are some factors that contribute to the lack of women safety in cities
● Lack of adequate lighting on roads
● Absence of robust 24X7 surveillance systems
● Dearth of proper police patrolling during night
● Lack of properly working helpline numbers
● Poor transport ecosystem
The good thing is sprawling city infrastructure in terms of roads, highways, public transport and public spaces has been built, but the essential element of safety is still not integrated in the DNA of our cities. Women safety is a top priority area for the Ministry of Home Affairs. This focus is mirrored in announcement of key initiatives like safe cities, smart policing and Criminal Law (amendment) act 2018. We think that digital networks and technologies can provide an effective solution.
Creating a technologically advanced women security ecosystem
The volume of crime against women is increasing with each passing year. A digitally empowered public and women safety ecosystem translating into a safe city ecosystem is now the need of the hour. A safe city ecosystem is the result of inclusive and collaborative processes that involve technology enablement at all steps.
A significant part of this agenda involves taking a technology-led approach to ensure safety and security:
● Robust surveillance ecosystem – Enabling 24X7 surveillance ecosystem with CCTV and video analytics for situational awareness. The analytics based surveillance and decision making can be leveraged for any safety-related issues.
●Virtually gated residential areas – Tokyo has implemented the concept of the virtual gated town, which aims to ensure a high security level, but without enclosing the neighbourhood behind fences and gates. Some 50 surveillance cameras, and LED street lights linked to them, have been installed at the entrance points to form a virtual fence; a smart video analytics system to send the data to the security control centre; and LED street lights equipped with sensors which detect whether a pedestrian or vehicle is close by
●Tech-enabled police patrolling -Real time feeds and alerts to the police patrolling teams to reach the crime scene faster and act better.
● Smart lighting – Installation of smart lighting even in the dark spots of cities to make them well-lit
● Increased safety measures in public transportation – This could be done by a stronger GPS tracking feature installed in all the public transports like bus or cab. Taxi services like Ola and Uber have introduced SOS buttons in their vehicles.
Achieving above-mentioned transformational change by overcoming information, process, and technology siloes will go a long way in ensuring women safety. To start with, key projects which are fundamentally important for creating this level of safety and security, should be expedited. These projects include the 8 safe cities and expediting the remaining work on CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems) and ICJS (Integrated Criminal Justice System). Additionally, Police networks and interconnectivity needs to be augmented in mission mode to provide a robust communication backbone for all the current and digitisation initiatives
This technology-led approach for safety is sure to make our cities I a safe and secure haven for women.
