Background

Women traversing urban and peri-urban spaces in India experience multiple, compounded barriers that stem from infrastructure deficiencies, social norms, and lack of governance. One of the major barriers is sexual harassment and gender-based violence in the form of catcalling, staring, unwanted touching and/or verbal harassment in public transport, market areas, bus stops, and other places in the public sphere. A major barrier is urban infrastructures that are poorly designed, including: inadequate lighting, unsafe and/or blocked pathways, absence of public toilets, broken pavements, and no safe waiting areas at transportation hubs. These barriers become even more pronounced in peri-urban and informal settlements that are still a target area for local governments because of a deficiency of adherence to the standards of urban planning in these areas. Many women working in the informal economy (i.e., street vendors, daily wage workers etc.) are also subject to institutional invisibility, harassment by local authority, evictions, lack of legal protections, and no responses for abusive behaviours. 

Delhi embodies many of these issues, but also provides some distinct patterns due to size, density, diversity, and the visibility of public policy. Women’s mobility and sense of safety are heavily influenced by infrastructure, or lack thereof, in relation to crime or unsafety: dark intersections, secluded streets, not having police close by or visible, streetlights, maintenance, etc. In Delhi, fear of harassment in public space is extremely high: large surveys (e.g. UN Women/ICRW earlier, but echoed in more recent studies) show very high percentages of women who report feeling “unsafe” being indoors. However, this “feeling” unsafe can drive “self-restriction” or self-policing of movement (i.e., avoiding certain routes, not going out after dark, lengthening their route in a different direction or taking a different mode of transportation, etc., or relying on male company). Additionally, governance or at least institutional responses of governance in Delhi are somewhat more visible: safety audits, mapping dark spots via apps such as Safetipin, lighting programs, etc. However, these remain uneven and often remain reactive instead of systematically planned. 

It is to intervene in this crucial matter that the project, “Say it Strong” was launched to provide women with their independent skills and the necessary resources whenever they would find themselves in precarious situations.