ABSTRACT
Women in Indian cities experience high rates of rape, molestation, and even murder on moving public and private transportations. Since the liberalisation of the Indian economy in the 1990s, the rate of moving rape has increased substantially, illustrating tensions at the intersections of class, gender, and urban spaces. The main gendered policy response that planning authorities in some large Indian cities like Mumbai and Delhi have instituted – which approach raises its own ethical concerns – is to have a few “Ladies-only” coaches or seats for women in trains and metros. This is an older response to the more general problem of sexual harassment but does not address issues of violent gendered crime adequately. Transport policies in Indian cities tend to focus only on the economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability, almost entirely ignoring the socio-cultural-political dimensions of mobilities and access. This chapter argues that in order to adequately respond to current Indian urban gendered realities, transport policies aimed at the elimination of violence in India cannot be divorced from engagement with social change.
