More people in the national Capital, as compared to Mumbai residents, worry about their safety when it comes to using public transport after 9 pm, stated a survey.
While buses found preference with late night travellers in Mumbai, those in Delhi tend to rely on Metro for such journeys and consider shared autos and all types of taxis least safe, according to ‘Crime Victimisation and Safety Perception’, a survey report by an NGO.
Of the surveyed persons, 45 per cent of 3,035 Delhiites worry about their safety while travelling by public transport after 9 pm as against 14 per cent of 3,658 Mumbaikars, it said.
In Delhi, Metro was perceived as safer mode of transport with 81 per cent male and 78 per cent women preferring it, while buses were found to be most popular in Mumbai and used by 77 per cent men and 79 per cent women.
Shared autos and all types of taxis are considered to be the least safe in Delhi, the study said.
The study found that 68 per cent people in Delhi felt unsafe even using their own transport after 10 pm, while in Mumbai 22 per cent felt the same.
As far as the perception of the local police was concerned, Mumbai residents (65 per cent) tended to perceive the police positively, while Delhi was more evenly split between positive (42 per cent) and negative (35 per cent) on the same account. The NGO said it asked all crime-affected households as well as a sample of non crime-affected households about their perception of the police over all.
“More than two-thirds of those in Mumbai answered that they perceive the police in a positive light, though just under half of Delhi respondents did. This may well track the overall safety perception in both cities, which is notably higher in Mumbai than Delhi,” the report said.
The survey was conducted in July-August 2015 and asked households to answer the questions based on their experiences in the preceding 12 month period (July 2014 to June 2015).
Fear of theft was universal across the two cities, the report said, adding that in Delhi, respondents were four times more fearful of sexual crimes than those in Mumbai, while households in Mumbai generally were more fearful of assault than Delhiites.
For crime incidence, 4,990 households in Delhi and 6,036 in Mumbai were interviewed and 13 per cent of household in Delhi (647) and 15 per cent in Mumbai (927) said they had experienced one of the seven crime categories under study.
The seven crimes included theft, assault, house break, sexual harassment, criminal intimidation, unnatural death and missing persons.
Theft was the most commonly experienced crime among 77.2 per cent in Mumbai and 76.1 per cent in Delhi with theft of cell phone being most common (40 per cent of thefts in both cities) followed by theft of luggage, wallet, purse or cash. Car thefts were more in Delhi (10 per cent) as compared to Mumbai (only 1 per cent).
In Delhi, sexual harassment is the second most commonly experienced (9.37 per cent) crime, while in Mumbai it was physical assault (8.92 per cent)
In both the cities, majority of cases of sexual harassment experienced involved passing of lewd or sexual comments, 75.94 in Delhi and 56.72 per cent in Mumbai.
Besides, of victim households, 46.8 per cent in Delhi and 41.8 per cent in Mumbai reported crime to the police, while the remaining in both the both metropolis went unreported.