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MASS TRANSPORT

Women Safety & Public

Transportation Ecosystem

Public transportation without safety measures like vehicle tracking

devices and emergency response system in public transport are
creating nightmare for women passengers to travel. A further delay in
implementing such measures will only aggravate the current situation of
public transport in India.

n 28th November vehicles should be fitted with tamper- Current situation of
2016, Ministry of Road proof GPS tracking system. women’s safety in Public
Transport and Highways Transportation
(MoRTH), Govt. of India, Recently MoRTH released a
Ohad mandated fitment notification mentioning that the Central Working women population in India
of vehicle location tracking device and Government has exempted all public is ~44 million, out of these, 30% do not
one or more emergency button(s) in service vehicles from the provisions of undertake any mode of transport to
all public service vehicles with effect rule 125H of the Central Motor Vehicles travel for work and 39% travel less than
from 1st April 2018. The regulation Rules, 1989 (of equipped with or fitted 5 km citing unsafe public transportation
focused on women safety in public with vehicle location tracking device as the reason. ~88% women feel unsafe
service vehicles such as buses and and one or more emergency buttons) while using public transportation. There
taxis. The action was also an outcome upto the 1st day of April, 2019. This were 315 cases of “insult to modesty
of Justice Verma’s Committee report delay will hamper the primary motive of women” (under section 509 of the
which recommended that all transport of the regulation. Indian Penal Code) in public transport
reported in 2015, an increase of 160%
over 2014. By 2017, 436 more such
cases were reported.
Public transportation without safety
measures like vehicle tracking devices
and emergency response system in
buses and taxis are creating nightmare
for women passengers to travel. 87%
passengers feel emergency response
does not come even after dialing the
emergency number such as police and
ambulance; this also attributes to the
quality of devices being used at present
and lack of standards to govern any
such system. The notification released by
MoRTH in Nov, 2016 have also triggered
development of robust automotive
industry standard (AIS-140) which will
ensure quality and reliability of devices/
systems used in case of emergency.

50 April - May ’18 / TrafficInfraTech www.trafficinfratech-com-500653.hostingersite.com