The use of public spaces in a city by women is determined by many factors such as access, safety, time of day, geographical and architectural arrangements and social beliefs and cultural narratives regarding the presence of women in public spaces. Providing information about localities and facilities in public spaces is one step towards creating safety for the residents of the city and increasing mobility especially for women.
Final Year students of B.Sc. (H) Home Science from the Department of Human Development and Childhood Studies, Institute of Home Economics, University of Delhi conducted Safety Audit walks as a part of their paper on ‘Gender and Social Justice’. This was done in collaboration with Safetipin a mobile Application that collects safety data from across various cities in the world and Jagori a Women’s' rights NGO.
Ms. Rashee Mehra, from the Safetipin team briefed the students about the app in a workshop held at the college. In this session the topic of gender and mobility was introduced and discussed. A common id representing IHE was created on the Safetipin app, which was used by the students to conduct safety audit walks. The audit was conducted through walks on streets near the college campus using the ‘Safetipin’ Application. The routes that were covered (in two groups) by the students were:
ROUTE 1
Date: 20 January 2015
Time: 5:30 to 7pm
Areas Observed: Shahpur Jat -‐> Sirifort Sports Complex -‐> Gulmohar Park -‐> Hauz Khas Police Station -‐>Mayfair Garden
ROUTE2
Date: 20 January 2015
Time: 5:30 to 7pm
Areas observed: Shahpur Jat-> Gulmohar Park ->NIFT ->Hauz Khas Market-> Mayfair Garden->IHE
ROUTE 3
Date: 27th January 2015
Time: 2:20
Areas observed: IIT Delhi->Mother’s International School-> Kalu Sarai-> Hauz Khas bus terminal->Sarvpriya Vihar->IHE
Route4
Date: 27th January 2015
Time: 2:20
Areas observed: SDA market->Padmini Enclave-> Green Park-> National Association of Blind Office-> Chor Minar->Mayfair Garden