Have a system in place and monitor it well
Vineet Sharma

Protests serve only as an expression of anger but for long-term solutions, there has to be conscious planning and strategy. Photo: Reuters

As an IIT alumunus, with 20 years of work experience with multinational companies, one feels there is a dire need to attack the menace of unsafe public places through a multipronged approach:

• Simplify the strategy for people at large to understand easily

• Translate the strategy into practical, effective actions

• Lay down clear focal points for the action

• Drive the programme with a dashboard which tracks each of these actions

• Evaluate effectiveness and fine-tune steps further

Every section of the society needs to contribute and this is possible only when each section considers this as the prime area to address. Everybody needs a safe environment to live in and it is a fundamental right of every individual— immaterial of colour, gender, caste, tribe or religion that an individual happens to belong to.

It needs to be taken up as a programme at a neighborhood, city, state, Centre level for it to move in a certain direction. Complaining, criticising, flailing arms isn’t going to get us anywhere. A sustained action with clear prioritisation is key to it.

Do recognise that the criminals who commit these crimes are criminals first and do not evoke feeling of safety in any citizen, male or female. So, women’s safety is crucial to making citizens feel safe.

Police, law-enforcement agencies: The beat policemen are actually the face of law and they need to be aware of this fact at all times. What they do or don’t do makes a deep impression in the minds of general public about law enforcers. In Chandigarh (and maybe other places), the duality of roles between traffic policeman and other policeman is a bad idea. Traffic rules violation may seem to be petty crimes in front of rape but disregard of rules and regulations start from petty crimes only. Effective policing and action on even small crimes and violations will repose and restore faith in law and order enforcement.

Neighborhood and community-watch programmes: These can make a big difference in creating a community feeling among people. This can be extended to include the law-enforcement agencies of that region. Sharing of dashboards among these two sides should be made a weekly affair.

Sufficient expansion of judicial capacity to ensure timely justice:

• Evolve categorisation of cases and set the limits for the levels of courts and decision.

• Expand the judges pipeline

• Evolve citizen involvement in adjudicating on cases

• Overall reserve the extreme caution on categories of crimes.

Fast-track courts for crime against women: As an interim measure, it is extremely important as an immediate step until the judicial system takes time in overhauling itself.

Women empowerment: It has to start from school, college years where self-defence training programmes should be a part of the curriculum. Use of technology (mobile apps) should be expanded to report crimes. Investigation needs to be less traumatic for the victim and using technology in forensic science can help significantly in this aspect.

Gender sensitisation and respect for women need to be effectively worked at family, school, social level with an objective framework and policies from the government. Note, that the latter isn't the bottleneck here.

It is really the social transformation which starts from each of social spaces we move across day in and day out. It is important to put that in place and build an opinion that makes this a crime in social consciousness.

We need men, students, to nip it in the bud in classroom banter in school, water-cooler banter in office et al. We should expand the presence of women cautiously in all spheres. It helps and women do no worse than men in most roles just by their sheer determination.

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