The Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 11, as well as the New Urban Agenda, emphasize gender equity and safe, resilient, and inclusive cities and public spaces especially for women. But if women instinctively fear for their safety every time they step out of their homes in the Capital, do they even enjoy the most basic of rights that of free movement, enshrined in the Constitution? The question is hard hitting but crucial for prompt response and actions.
There are solutions and to navigate the way out, AROH Foundation in association with Red Dot Foundation organized an hour long session on “Women Safety” on 14th October 2020. The aim was to make community safer by encouraging equal & safe access to public spaces for everyone especially women. Interactive poll, Q&A session naturally prompted the participant to come out and share their experience and got guided on how to handle any such occurrence in future.
Speaking on the session, the moderator from AROH Foundation and Red Dot Foundation highlighted how men may not think twice before accessing public spaces, but women clearly do. They emphasized how women are often forced to take steps like using less/no jewelry, wearing kurtas with pockets, not travelling through dimly-lit areas, all in order to protect themselves.
Cities, considered engines of growth, cannot drive progress if nearly half the population cannot walk the streets without fear. Women have a right to the city; and to enjoy its opportunities, benefits and services. However, the increasing incidence of sexual harassment and violence against women in public spaces in cities has once again brought the issue of women’s safety into the public discourse.
Webinar also introduced and educated the participants about the women safety app “Safecity” that crowd sources personal stories of sexual harassment and abuse in public spaces and facilitate cumulative effort to nab the perpetrators on streets. Therefore, we need to move away from the notion that what works for men will also work for women. To build a safe city, it is important that city planning and enforcement go hand-in-hand. The need of the hour is a paradigm shift – from a male-centric urban development model to a gender inclusive one – wherein planners are involved in the process of designing an inclusive and safe city for all.
