Women will drive govt. vehicles in INDIA

As per Deccan Herald, a part of the letter reads, “It would be helpful if your Ministry/Department would call for proposals from vehicle suppliers for supply of vehicles specifying that they will operate in part or in full by the trained women partners, including those trained by the NDMC.“

Photo for representational purpose only. Source: Twitter 

Chhattisgarh Bhawan, Madhya Pradesh Bhawan, Food and Civil Supplies Department, Tourism Department and Postal Department have sent positive responses to the request so far.

NDMC is also training the said women drivers. Seven of them have already procured their commercial driving license and 40 more women are being trained as drivers in the council’s technical institute.

According to the department, women can be appointed on annual basis or as need develops. Clearly, the visibility of women in this job needs to be increased for further mobilization.

Vidushi Chaturvedi, Director, Education, NDMC said, “There is an immediate need to engage the seven women who already hold commercial licenses. It is difficult to mobilize women to join as cab drivers. If the first batch of commercial license-holders is placed well, it will be easier to set an example for the next batch as well.”
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HomeEvent

1. Clothes For Help – Kolkata

Kolkata Clothes Drive – A citywide program providing clothes and jobs to families living in slum communities and villages. Please do not donate ripped, worn-out or stained clothes, undergarments, socks or shoes. More details.

When: 5th July
Where: Responsible Charity Office, 22 Saktigarh Road, Jadavpur, Kolkata

2. Film Screening – Hockey In My Blood – Bengaluru

Hockey in my Blood is a film about hockey in Coorg, told through the story of the Kodava Hockey Festival, the world’s largest hockey tournament played between the families of Coorg in the coffee hills of South India.

Kodavas, the people of Coorg are a martial-tribal community known for strong ties to land and family. Every year, Kodava players from over 200 families come together to play in their own hockey tournament – The Kodava Hockey Festival. There is no bar on age or gender. The only rule of forming a team is that all members must be from the same family. More details.

When: 9th July
Where: Everest Talkies, No 1, Kenchappa Road, Frazer Town, Bengaluru

3. Kids for Change – Let’s Team Up! – Bengaluru

To imagine that your participation in a fun race can help an orphan child get a family for life, should be enough reason to sign up for this event, but, there are many more reasons why you don’t want to miss being a part of this fantastic endeavor!!

A sports oriented event will raise funds for SOS Village. More details.

When: 4th July
Where: 6th main, Indiranagar, Bengaluru

4. Co’meow’dy For A Cause – Mumbai

Join artists Kunal Kamra, Kamal Singh and Abhishek Upmanyu with your family and friends for a night of laughter and entertainment while contributing towards the welfare of animals for WorldForAll! More details.

When: 5th July
Where: Zeba Center, Mathuradas Mill Compound, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai

5. Summer Volunteer Program – Delhi

Under this project, volunteers can take informal education classes, play games with the children and create fun activities for them to participate. Volunteers work at the various contact points or shelter homes, being run by various organizations, which serve as day care centers for these street children. They can assist in providing love, care, basic literacy, recreation and most importantly spend time and shower affection on them. More details. Contact- Sabharwal,Saurabh, +91-01244724000, info@volunteeringsolutions.com

When: From 2nd July till 23rd August
Where: Delhi

Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us:contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter (@thebetterindia).

Just moved to a new city and want to know how safe it is? Check out its safety score? And wouldn’t it be great if you could choose the safest route to your destination even before you left the house? Now you can.

Crime in urban areas, particularly in big cities like Delhi, is of concern to all of us today. Women are afraid to step out of their homes after dark, parents are concerned about the safety of their children as they go to and fro from school, and even adult males are afraid of being attacked by unsavory characters in desolate or badly lit areas.

Kalpana Viswanath, with her 20 years of urban safety experience, has come up with an interesting app that not only enables you to complain about unsafe areas to local authorities so they can take appropriate action, but also helps you decide on your own as to which areas you want to travel through and which areas you want to avoid.

Kalpana Viswanath, Founder, Safetipin

“Various safety audits, based on nine parameters, have been done to check how safe a particular location is. These include lighting, number of people in an area, number of women in that area, how far is the public transport, is there a walk path, etc. The area is then scored on a scale of 5. The higher the score, the safer that area,” says Viswanath.

“Delhi has been in the news for being unsafe for women for quite some time. I decided to try and address the problem. I contacted Ashish Basu who was with NIIT to design the app,” she adds.

The app is called Safetipin and it also includes such features as GPS tracking, emergency contact numbers, directions to safe locations, pins showing safe and unsafe areas, and a safety score for each location on the map.

Launched in November 2013, Safetipin has been installed by over 35,000 users so far and led to many prompt actions by policy makers.

How does it work?

This free map based application helps users check the safety of a location. Safety is determined through a safety score which is derived through safety audits. These audits are usually done by the Safetipin team but anyone who downloads the app can also do the audits.

Users can audit a location through app’s audit feature which has nine parameters focusing on safety: public transport, light, people, openness, visibility, gender diversity, walk path, security and feeling.

These parameters have been set as per international standards and the ones relevant to India are included in the app.

For example, in the “feeling” option, you can select frightening, uncomfortable, acceptable, comfortable, etc., and in the “people” option users can select whether the location is crowded or deserted, etc.

Users can also comment on and discuss safety and infrastructure issues, post pictures and track their loved ones.

The app also has features to record “hazards and harrassments”. Users can choose “harassments” from categories such as catcalls, comments, stalking, etc. There are options to record hazardous infrastructure issues like poor lighting, poor public toilets, exposed wiring, etc.

If you want to know more about a neighbourhood, you can create circle of interest and any post through the app in this circle will show up on a wall tagged for that circle. You can also get access to information on nearby hospitals, police stations, pharmacy, and nearby safety services under the directory feature.

Users’ pins on the map help other people determine if a particular location is safe. “We are generating a lot of data on different locations. The app helps the government and policy makers to take action and improve the safety of locations,” says Viswanath.

Safetipin shares these safety scores with various portals and organizations in the fields of tourism, real estate, and recreation as part of their revenue model.

The impact

With the help of the social audits done through Safetipin, several actions have been taken to improve the safety of locations in Delhi. In Dwarka, various sign boards with emergency and helpline numbers were posted at various locations.

In addition, better lighting was installed at various bus terminals with help from the Delhi Transport Corporation. Seeing the different safety scores of the bus stops, many users were able to better plan the best possible routes to take.

The data generated through around 800 safety audits conducted by the app will be further used by the government to implement changes at various locations in the city.

Thought getting more people to use the app has been an issue because of lack of awareness, gradually more people are coming on board. Recently, Uber cabs partnered with Safetipin to take the initiative to the next level by providing Safetipin access to partner-drivers and their cars. These drivers will work with safety auditors of Safetipin at night in different location. The collaboration will also help in getting crucial inputs from thousands of passengers who use the cab service.

The larger goal

Safetipin also enables users to look for the nearest hospitals and police stations.

In the future the team wants to expand to more cities across the globe. Currently working in nine Indian cities — Delhi NCR, Gurgoan, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Pune, and Kolkata — the team wants to take this app worldwide. The app is also available in Bogota (Colombia) and Jakarta (Indonesia).

Already working with around nine NGOs, Viswanath wants to get more partners and expand her area of work. Safetipin is working on lighter version of the app and also coming up with new fetaures like Hindi support and identifying safety routes just like one does in Google maps.