On the second anniversary of the brutal rape and murder of 23-year-old Soumya, a group of volunteers will trace her route from Ernakulam station to Vallathol Nagar on the same train that she had boarded.
The initiative, ‘Yathra’ is an attempt at creating awareness about passenger rights among the commuters and other stakeholders to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.
“The number of incidents in which passengers, especially women, are brutally attacked on our buses and trains are mounting by the day.
The Delhi gang rape case is just one of those. Even after that incident, there was a similar incident on a bus in Punjab. Such attacks on passengers are common because there is no such concept of passenger rights,” said Sijin, a member of Synergians, a group that has been working in the area of Passengers Rights for around two years. The organisation aims at the formulation and awareness of Passenger Rights and the creation of systems like better technologies that would help in the enforcement activities.
Justice V R Krishna Iyer will flag off ‘Yathra’ on February 1 at 3.00 pm at his residence by giving a symbolic ticket for the journey.
After the flag off, the group will move to the Ernakulam Junction Station and speak to autorickshaw and taxi drivers on the best ways to provide a good travel experience for commuters.
A talk would be held on ‘Passenger Rights, Passenger Service and Standards - What Can We Do?’ at the railway station.
The team will then board the 56608 Ernakulam- Shornur Passenger train at 5.30 pm. There will be awareness sessions on Passenger Rights among the commuters at the stations too. At 9.30 pm, the team will alight at the Vallathol Station and pay tribute to Soumya.