Sensitise cab drivers, don't demonise them, urge Delhi taxi associations

Though the upgrading of taxi services in the country has bought cab services to ones door step, it has also invited unwanted trouble. Along with the path breaking revolutions in transport industry, the cases of sexual assault by the taxi drivers also recorded a steep rise.

The reasons for this development have been addressed to a plethora of factors on the second day of the Safer and Convenient Taxi Operations in India. However, many of the panellists have attributed the pitfalls to errant drivers.

A taxi union representative, Balwant Bhullar had decried the demonisation of drivers. Maligning their image, he said that the actions of a few errant drivers were used to stain their professions.

"We have been given the driver's seat by Lord Krishna himself who drove Arjun's chariot. There are some black sheep in the community and they need to be educated. We have been vilified and after our sacrifices are not taken into account. When an army man dies he is given a posthumous honour, when a driver dies they say that he was drunk or was over worked," said Balwant hullar.

Agreeing with Bhullar's point, Sanjay Beniwal, Special Commissioner of Police, Women safety, Airport and modernisation stated that cab driving as a profession has been maligned.

"When we foil several bomb blasts nobody remembers them but one bomb blast changes everything. The profession has indeed been maligned but the taxi drivers must be trained so that even if they face unruly behaviour from passengers they are able to deal with it, just like police officers are trained to deal with hooligans," said Beniwal.

The main reason for the vilification of taxi drivers was due to their involvement in several high profile molestation cases after which the authorities clamped down on taxi services like Uber.

"Till August 2016 around 3.27 lakh crimes took place against women and around 70 percent of the men involved were repeat offenders. After the Nirbhaya case, the authorities cancelled around 2500 public bus licenses and after the Uber case drivers were targeted as 80, 000 cabs were taken off the road. But we have to educate them as they are also humans and a part of the process to make Delhi secure for women," said DU professor, Neena Bansal.

However, all agreed on the common point stating that there was a lot to be done to make public transport accessible to women, senior citizens and mentally ill people, and drivers have a major to play.

Rishi, an IT developer, who is also mentally challenged said, "I book an OLA or Uber cab and the driver does not pick me up. He thinks I am mentally ill and will not pay or attack him. They also overcharge me and will also drop me off several meters before my destination thinking that I will not protest."

Dr Alok Kumar, who works at ManoVikas trains drivers to help provide a safe commute to mentally ill people. He claims that with proper training and use of technology, the drivers will get past the passengers idiosyncrasies and will be able to treat him as a normal passenger.