This paper discusses about the safety of women in urban spaces.

2. 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................2
THE PROBLEM........................................................................................................................3
WHY CITIES AREN’T SAFE FOR WOMEN?........................................................................4
SUPPORTING SAFETY SYSTEMS REQUIRED IN CITIES.................................................5
BUILDING A SAFE CITY FOR WOMEN...............................................................................6
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES ..........................................................................................................................8

3. 2
INTRODUCTION
The wave of urbanization which is taking place worldwide has certainly unfolded a new
chapter of research, forming major connections between politics, social relations, community,
and safety. Though the cities and people are getting modernized with time at a great pace, yet
there is an undercurrent of a very deep feeling of isolation and vulnerability in fewer lesser
known chunks of the society which have conventionally been at a state of deprivation just for
the sake of their gender, class, migrant status, etc. this susceptibility mostly manifests in the
victims' mind, in the manner in which these excluded groups are denied or are largely unable
to access what the city offers to the privileged residing in the city, which by many ways
affects their quality of living. There are numerous factors that play important roles in
identifying women’s access to the city. Women and girls face a lot of difficulties to work and
move around in the cities. The violence against women and girls in the process of carrying
out their daily activities have increased over the years.
Gender-based attacks have been and are present at various stages of our lives, starting with
discrimination at the time of birth, further perpetuated discrimination in education, nutrition,
employment, salaries, etc. There have been numerous ways of countering and stopping
gender-based violence which includes forming new laws, campaigns, and even forming new
institutional mechanisms. In the late 70s and the early 80s, women’s movement was at the
forefront of a ‘second wave of feminism’, raising loud voices against broad issues such as
dowry, rape, and sexual assault. This phase broke the silence around violence against women
and were pillars to form several legal reforms which include the prevention of Domestic
violence act and one of sexual assault. There are numerous sections in the Indian Penal Code
which very harshly deals with sexual harassment.
Yet, there are millions of women across the world who everyday experiences a fear of
assault, sexual harassment and even rape in an Urban environment. Now, in 2020 more than
3.3 billion people resides in the huge cities and towns, with around 65 million people added
to urban population every year. Many of them are women who are looking for opportunities
to broaden their horizons and open their lives to the oceanic world in front of them, instead
they face the persistent threat of sexual violence constricting and taking control of their lives.
(Jagori. (2010)).

4. 3
THE PROBLEM
• The cities have become threatening places where a woman need to remain constantly
on alert. It is difficult for them to commute on public transports or sometimes even
walking on the streets in early mornings and late evenings.
• Sexual violence and harassment have now become persistent and one of the most
corrosive features of our public spaces and a sad reality for women living in the urban
Local bodies.
• The safety of women, their need and requirements are mostly ignored in the urban
planning as the urban planning sphere is generally leaded by men.
• Women’s lives would be made safer by reliable and regulate public transport,
universal and accessible water supplies, safe public toilets and adequately lit street in
poor urban areas but are not done.
• Due to the Rapid urbanization and large female migration into the cities, the
vulnerability to sexual violence in public areas have largely increased.
• There is a lack of legal instruments in dealing with sexual violence. The laws formed
are not widely used.
• The environment and society, fundamentally are more inclined towards the belief that
men and their opinions matters the most and are of greater importance than that of a
women’s.
• The media, today plays a very important role in perpetuating the acceptance of
women’s inequality to men. Hence, most of the time there is a shock and outrage in
reporting, the root cause of the violence which took place and the role of the
institution in perpetuating the myth that women are unequal is not explored.
(Dhar, S. (2011))

5. 4
WHY CITIES AREN’T SAFE FOR WOMEN?
• Poverty and socio- economic status: Poor women face more challenges compared to
the well-off in safety related to accessing different services. For poor and homeless
women, women vendors and domestic workers the vulnerability increases as they
regularly have to visit public places.
• Infrastructure: Infrastructure is one of the major reasons as poorly maintained toilets
possesses fear in the women of being attacked by the attendants. similar is the case
with poorly lit streets and empty sidewalks at late evenings and early mornings. In
addition, lack of efficient transport in the cities also makes it difficult for the women
to commute within the city.
• Usage of spaces and familiarity: The gender of people using a space is often found a
reason for women feeling unsafe. According to a survey it is found out that women in
Delhi feel uncomfortable in male dominated areas such as cigarette shops, Dhabas,
auto-stands, and liquor shops. Its not just that women hesitate in using these spaces
but mostly avoid going near such spaces for the fear of harassment.
• Social attitudes: sexual harassment is often very normalized by the public and
regarded as harmless “eve teasing” which also equally contributes to women’s
unsafety. Girls and women are often blamed for themselves inviting sexual
harassment because of their clothing preferences or behavior which is wrong.
• Attitude of the police: The fear while reporting a case in police can often be traced to
the faith that whether the police will follow up and take the case seriously or not. The
insensitivity of the police towards gender-based crime and violence often discourages
the women from approaching the police.
• Laws: The laws and policies to protect women are very few and are often neglected
by the people sitting in power while the victim suffers in the ghettos of the cities.
• Media: The victim often fears reporting gender-based crimes because in Indian
society it is believed that it would make it a media sensation which is often believed
may lead to a loss of dignity of the entire family in society. (Khameneh, Y.T.,
Ebrahimpour, M. (2014))

6. 5
SUPPORTING SAFETY SYSTEMS REQUIRED IN CITIES
“A safe city is a city which provides and makes sure the eradication of gender-based
violence, while at the same time giving equal chances for men and women in all the spheres
of social, economic, cultural and political life…” (Kelly, A. (2014)).
Based on many studies conducted in developed and developing world, the built environment
factors that affect women’s perception of safety are:
• Proper lighting: Dark lanes and streets in the cities, dark and empty car parking’s,
and other poorly lit spaces causes discomfort for women to commute during the early
hours of the day and in the late evenings which often increases the fear of violence.
• Quality of Public Spaces: Poorly maintained spaces like sidewalks, manholes,
streetlights blocked by overgrown trees, etc. creates fear among women. On the
contrary hygienic surroundings, clean sidewalks, roads free of urinating men, cleaner
roads make women feel safe.
• Empty Buildings and Plot: Women often feel unsecure walking on roads with large
empty walls and plots because of the fear of not getting any kind of help in any case
of assault. Empty buildings and plots are often gambling spots and men can be seen
doing illicit activities in such areas.
• Places with accessible Police Booths: Deserted places makes women uncomfortable.
Hence places where police are in regular surveillance and if places are under CCTV
coverage zone, it makes the women and girls secure and comfortable in a way that if
any situation of emergency occurs, they can be easily heard and helped.
• Male dominated Spaces: women often get intimated by large group of men around
then even though the place is well-lit. women feel safe around women or men when
they are with their families.
• Status of public toilets: It is often found in slums that the toilet is not usable and is in
filthy and vandalized state. women have often reported this kind of places to be highly
unsafe as the mail attendants often harass the women by peak or break into the toilets.
• Extent of familiar people/shops/vendors: The presence of familiar people around
makes women feel safe and vendors and shops also ensures general activity round-
the-clock, ensuring informal surveillance throughout the day even when police is not
around.
• Protected events and social gatherings: It’s often found in social gatherings and
youth events that young women are harassed. So, restaurants, clubs and pubs hosting
such events should make safety of women a priority prior to hoisting such events.
(Mahadevia, D., Lathia, S. (2019))

7. 6
BUILDING A SAFE CITY FOR WOMEN
Violence against women and girls neither have a single cause nor a single solution. The first
step to tackle such a huge issue is to develop a safety strategy for women which addresses
this complexity. A safety strategy is mostly based on very careful assessment of the multitude
of factors which influences women’s safety in a city. From this knowledge plans for
interventions to promote women safety can be taken.
In assessing safety and promoting women safety, there are five major areas to work in:
• Defining and understanding specific local problems: the goal of this is to generate
knowledge about the current status of safety of women in the society, and looking for
answers to the questions like. What are the obstacles to safety for women and girls?
What areas are safe or unsafe for women and why?
• Assess existing policies and programs contributing to safety/unsafety: The idea of
having a safer city with supporting safety systems for women will take place when the
city has suitable program and policies. These policies and programs may influence
physical and social factors.
• Create partnerships with stakeholders: After identifying the local safety problems
in the first stage, It is now important to involve different people and group in the
intervention to address those problems.
• Plans and implement interventions: the work of gathering knowledge, identifying
the stakeholders and beneficiaries of the program, Forming committees etc. it is
important to begin planning and implementing interventions.
• Monitoring and evaluation: Monitoring and evaluation are the key to successful and
safe cities. It is very important for a city to lay a foundation for both monitoring and
evaluation at a very beginning stage of the intervention. (Dhar, S. (2011))

8. 7
CONCLUSION
Every city has a different story to be told about the economic and social prospects of women
residing in those cities.
Over the last few years, there have been a goal of the international women’s movement to
end the violence against women and girls at home and workplace. Recently, it is seen that a
lot of attention is being paid to the need to address the violence’s against women in public
spaces.
Women and girls experiences various forms of violence in public spaces: starting from
stalking to sexual assault. Harassment such as aggressive staring and passing comments are
normalised as a part of urban life but actions should be taken against the serious crimes. In a
study conducted, results showed that almost 60% of the women in the unban spaces feel
unsafe.[source: Women in cities International, “learning from women to create gender
inclusive cities”]
By having safety systems in a city it would be possible to eliminate all forms of violence
being practised against women and will also empower women in a longer run.
As observed in the literature above, many women face numerous difficulty in their day to day
life and it’s also duty of the government to make the cities safer for women’s. Violence
against women is a violation of human rights and certainly is a major obstacle in achieving
gender equality.

9. 8
REFERENCES
Khameneh, Y.T., Ebrahimpour, M. (2014). Social Safety’s women in urban public space:
Case study of Mashhad Metropolitan. American Journal of Engineering Research (AJER), 3,
227-233.
Kelly, A. (2014). Safe Cities for Women: From reality to rights. Retrieved from
https://actionaid.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Safe-Cities-for-Women-From-Realities-to-
Rights-1.pdf.
Dhar, S. (2011).Building Safe and Inclusive Cities for Women: A practical guide. Retrieved
from http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/5-13-add-building-
safe-inclusive-cities-for-women.pdf.
Mahadevia, D., Lathia, S. (2019). Women’s Safety and Public spaces: Lessons from
Sabarmati Riverfront, India. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334120033.
Jagori. (2010). Understanding Women’s Safety: Towards a gender Inclusive city. Retrieved
from http://www.endvawnow.org/uploads/browser/files/understanding_womens_safety.pdf.
Patel, S., Burra, S. (1998). Making cities safe for women and children. Retrieved from
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-
projects/drivers_urb_change/urb_society/pdf_gender/SPARC_Patel_Cities_Safe_Women%2
0_Children.pdf