Two years after December 16 gang-rape, are Delhi's buses any safer?
On December 16, 2012, a young student was gang-raped on a moving bus in Delhi and tortured so brutally that she died of severe internal injuries 16 days later. The crime shook India to the core and triggered nationwide soul searching that led to new safety rules and tougher laws.
Exactly two years later, NDTV finds that using public transport remains almost as unsafe for women as before.
The first bus that we tested had no working CCTV or GPS. Instead of a CCTV, there are some wires that betray half-hearted effort. There is a GPS, but the driver says, "It has not been working since yesterday."
On the second bus, there is no CCTV but there is a GPS. There are two panic buttons on the bus, a new vehicle commissioned after the Delhi gang-rape. If anyone in distress presses the red button, the bus should stop immediately. We pressed the button repeatedly, but no one reacted.
"The button works," the driver claimed. Then why didn't he stop the bus? The answer was baffling. "The bus will only stop at the stand," he said.
Auto-rickshaws, used by thousands of women every day, are no better.
We speak to the driver of an auto that has a new fare meter with the added feature of a panic button installed after the 2012 rape.
Again, we find that the panic button is present only in spirit.
"We have no idea about this button," said the auto-driver, who has been driving on Delhi's roads for 17 years. "It is useless for us," he shrugged.
Only half the buses and autos of Delhi have GPS. Only half the buses have night guards.
The rape of a passenger inside an Uber cab two weeks ago exposed the lack of safety even in private taxis.
More than half the police stations miss a special help desk with a policewoman in charge, to respond to crimes against women. Of 3,000 posts, some 1,700 remain unfilled.
A retired judge who recommended an action plan for safety after the Delhi gang-rape is disappointed.
"There is no coordination between the transport department and the traffic police. Much of the crime can be stopped if they communicate," said Justice Usha Mehra.
The transport department, which issues commercial driving licenses, has been accused of letting rules slide while handing out documents to people like Shiv Kumar Yadav, the Uber driver arrested for allegedly raping a woman in his taxi. Yadav had a criminal record that included two past rape charges.