‘Why wearing short clothes?’ stories of women hiring cabs
“The driver first asked why I was wearing ‘short clothes’ and continued to stare even after I asked him not to. Then he kept asking where I was going and if I had a boyfriend or not”, said a woman respondent in a study by Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad on the use of cab aggregator service like Ola and Uber in the city.
While the app-based cab aggregators promise “safety” to its women users, the study has found that over 74 per cent of surveyed women, reported taking either compulsive or frequent precautionary measures while using a cab at night.
Many respondents recounted facing harassment by the drivers like unwanted staring, lewd gestures, rude and loud language among others.
The study, titled ‘The New Public: Gender and Age in Aggregator Cab Services’, has found that 43 per cent of the respondents used the app’s security measure of sharing trip and cab details with family. However, the use of more subtle measures like being on call, carrying precautionary items like pepper spray, tracking travel routes, pretending to be listening to songs in order to avoid conversation attempts by the driver were found. While 30 per cent admitted to using such measures ‘always’, 28 per cent said they used them ‘often’.
The use of SOS button which was introduced following the Delhi Uber rape case, was found to be rare and only in cases of car breakdown or other such issues,” says the study, revealing a gaping hole in the security measures which maybe insufficient and open to misuse as well.
Is She not using She-Cabs?
Hyderabad: She Cabs, which was introduced as a measure to check the safety of women using cab services in the city and deemed an alternative to the more popular Ola and Uber, do not have many takers, finds the study. 61 per cent of the respondents, which include women and elderly people, were not aware of the cab service She Cabs which is exclusively for women.
She Cabs come with a button on their car door that was linked to the nearest police headquarters. She Cabs has only 7 functioning cars now as opposed to initial target of 100. The respondents reported to having heard of the service but not availing it. “One girl had attempted to use it, but the cab never came and the phone number was unresponsive”, said the study.