Centre initiates 'Safe-City Plans' for women in eight metropolitan cities

New Delhi: The centre has emphasized on women safety centre and initiated formulating comprehensive 'Safe City Plans' for eight metropolitan cities– Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Hyderabad.

Thirty-three per cent reservation of women in police, installation of CCTV cameras, deployment of women in police stations, emergency response system, and police verified public transport, prevention of cyber crime, infrastructure issues, mapping of dark spots and crime-prone areas and involvement of educational institutions are among other issues of the comprehensive measures.

While chairing a review meeting here in the national capital on Wednesday with Municipal Commissioners, Police Commissioners, senior state government officials, and Civil Society representatives of the respective cities, the Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba discussed these issues and said, "Independent analysis and feedback system should be institutionalised to assess the perception of women on ground regarding their safety issues. Their feedback and suggestions on various issues can also be incorporated after independent survey and our approach to women's safety can thus be fine tuned."

Gauba also emphasised on 'targeted intervention' by the police and civil administration, which will have larger impact on women's safety and 'Integrated Command and Control Centres' and on collaborative monitoring by police and privately installed CCTV cameras— which should be in a time-bound and phased manner.

Current women safety measures were also reviewed and discussed, E.g. Himmat App, All Women Patrol Van, Shishtachar programme of Delhi police; SHE teams, Hawkeye Mobile App & Bharosa programme of Hyderabad police; Suraksha App of Bengaluru police and Power Angels of UP police. The steps taken by other metro cities including mobile counseling vans for hearing the grievances of women, lighting in the sub-urban railway station areas, complaint boxes in the colleges, dedicated helpline for women, awareness programmes organised by the police, setting up of shelter homes for women and making provisions for street lighting were also discussed.

It was decided that the police and municipal corporations of these eight cities will frame a plan of action. The plan will be forwarded by the respective 'State Level Committee' headed by the Chief Secretary of the state. The plan of action to be submitted by these cities within a month will be assessed by the 'Steering Committee' headed by the Union Home Secretary, which will make suitable recommendations.

The representatives of Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways were also present during the meeting.