Women groups, journalists and lawyers demand for a safer society for women

A group of women activists, journalists, lawyers and human rights activists met Tamil Nadu DGP Ramanujam and handed over a letter demanding for a safer society for women.

V. Geetha, Gnani, Prof. Marx, Prof. Saraswathy, Oviya, Ambai, Ira. Jawahar, Adv. Arulmozhi, A. Mangai are some of the prominent signatories of the letter.

From the letter:

A. Companies must ensure that cab services do not use isolated roads, and that they ply only on well-marked and well-lit roads. Companies must also set up mechanisms that ensure that such a directive is taken seriously. Government must send out strong signals to companies as well as cab operators that anything which compromises employee safety will incur stern government action.

B. Public transport must be compulsorily made available in all industrial and IT complexes, including on feeder routes that lead to main entrances and exits. Buses must ply at regular hours, and bus stops set up at regular intervals. The presence of steady and reliable public transport makes for a modicum of road safety. Further public transport workers and operators are automatically accountable to the government and to the people, and this must make for a more accountable and safe transport system.

C. Lastly, as regards transport, companies operate and offer transport services for their employees, keeping in mind the time of departure from their premises. But it is the time of arrival that is important, since many employees do live far away and spend at least an hour to two hours on the road to get home. In this context, it is imperative that companies work out safe transport arrangements not only with private operators, but also work in coordination with local police.

We hope that all concerned understand these suggestions in the spirit they are being made. Whatever measures are undertaken for womens safety must not be at the cost of their right to a profession of their choice, their right to mobility and their right to life and liberty. We do not want more surveillance measures that restrict womens movements and cast aspersions on their life style choices. Rather we want an overall and accountable system of public safety to be put in place which ensure the safety of both men and women."