India has been heavily tormented by rapes in the past few years and Delhi has been the capital of it. Last Friday night, a 26 year old woman was been allegedly raped in a taxi by its driver. She used her smartphone to book the cab. The app which she used was that of a US based company Uber. Ever since this incident took place, there has been a huge upsurge in our country to fight against this case.
Our government is also trying to model a solution for that gruesome act but I see their solution completely flawed.
The state has banned all internet based taxi companies which are not registered by the government. This step has been taken in order to regulate the number of unregistered taxis running around the city.
Is banning all web based taxi services the only thing which our government can think of for ensuring safety of women? Rather regulating these taxi services with strict measures would have been a much better route to go through. After all, if government thinks banning Uber for one such case is a solution, then shouldn’t the govt ban itself for multiple failures that it has faced through since our independence?
The problem which we are addressing here is massive, it is a question of women security in India, and it needs to be dealt layer by layer. What the government has done here is, it has hogged all the limelight by banning those taxi services instead of dealing with this problem at its very root. It is an easy way out for the state which has been put under constant pressure by the public and media. This step has been taken in order to absorb all the tension from the air and throw something at the public to nibble on.
The question which needs to be asked here is, why Uber has no mechanism in India to check on the drivers where as in US it follows a strict, three stage routine. Uber took things lightly because our government allowed them to take things casually. It’s not completely their fault in what happened in Delhi that night. Instead of banning the services why isn’t the government installing stricter rules and regulations to which all the companies have to comply.
The state is also trying to diverge attention from the fact that the alleged rapist, Shiv Kumar Yadav, was previously also accused of forgery and rape but no strict action was taken against him. In spite of being arrested twice before on charges of rape, he was allowed to continue driving the cab. Don’t you think that this is another aspect which should be questioned rigorously?
The legal system should explain the lapses as well and not just blame the entire thing on the transport department. I don’t think banning taxi services like Uber will make much of a difference. Things will retreat back to the way they were if stronger initiatives are not taken.
Women’s safety is perhaps, the biggest social problem which our country is facing today and it cannot be dealt with such vague measures. You cannot just allow incidents like these to happen every other day, there needs to be a system which can work on all levels to curb things like molestation and rape.
We cannot allow the state to run away from this issue by blaming the entire thing on web based taxi services, we need a proper justification and we won’t settle down until we get it.
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