All in NAME of women safety.

After much hue and cry over elections, Arvind Kejriwal’s claim of scrapping bus and metro fares came out a bit uncertain to me. The initiative itself is a great one, but not well-thought one according to me. Kejriwal’s declaration divided people into two parts, Feminist v/s the rest. However, it was not a matter of equality for me, but what left me pricking my head was him alluding this to women safety. I wonder how the scrapping of fares can contribute to women safety in India. Foremostly, its high time we stop glamorizing women safety and try to do something to fit the root cause.

India is a society where we live with a notion of finding ways to fight things rather than eliminating the root cause. Here also, women safety is played with as it has always been a matter a deliberation (only deliberation) for us from yesteryears. We all know that the metro coach touching the women coach happens to be most exciting for most men. Visions of staring, touching themselves inappropriately and sometimes passing comments happen in the metro. Rather than bringing out awareness and sanity among men of our society, bringing up initiatives like this seems frivolous and cruel to me. We expect change; ease, comfortable and safe movements not protections. Even if we get this security, how can we forget that not everyone has walking access to metro stations? Surviving all the teases, eye rapes on road, getting security in the metro may not be so delightful. Further, even if we extend metro timings with free fares, me being a girl would still not feel safe to travel in them post 11pm.

When I say the move is great, I refer to millions of women in our country who will be benefitting from this. We all know how women in our country have less access to commodities. Our society is multi-layered in every possible way. Here also, the plight of women of lower strata and women of higher strata vary accordingly. If I see this move, not in the light of exclaim, I see it benefitting the lower strata women. Ease of traveling to thousands of hapless women who cannot afford traveling.

What I feel he could have thought was, maybe a dedicated women metro running at a specific time (peak time) just for women or maybe he could have brought down fares for us.

I do acknowledge the fact that Kejriwal has brought some of the remarkable changes, be it with Education, Bills to Pensions. However, one thing that I have always noticed about him is, his initiatives are good but he does not know how to endorse it. Something he should learn from the best orator we have, our very own Modiji.