Hyderabad: The Hyderabad SHE team receives at least one complaint every month against autorickshaw and cab drivers in the city for harassing single women passengers.
Assistant commissioner of police of SHE Team, D. Kavitha, said, “In a majority of complaints, women face harassment, molestation and stalking from cabbies and autorickshaw drivers.”
A source from Ola who is not willing to disclose his identity said that whenever they receive a complaint of any such incident, they put the specific driver on a temporary blacklist and begin an internal investigation.
“If the complaint is true, then we permanently blacklist the concerned driver and take his details down to make sure he does not resume work again in our company. If there is a police case, we coordinate with the police and deal with the issue,” the source explained further.
What to do?
- President of the Telangana State Cabs and Bus Operators Association (TSCBOA), Syed Nizamuddin said that transport companies must check the track record of a driver before employing him.
- He added that following similar incidents in Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai, cab associations have issued guidelines for women, especially those travelling alone in cabs.
- Mr Nizamuddin suggests precautions that women commuters can take:
- All cab managements allow through their app details of the cab ride to be shared. Share your cab details with friends or relatives as soon as you get into the vehicle.
- Before the ride, the app will show the rating of the driver. Based on the rating, woman travelling alone should choose their ride carefully.
- If the driver has a double-meaning conversation with you lodge a complaint with the police and inform the cab company.
- Don’t allow additional passengers if you haven’t opted for car-pooling, especially if the driver requests you, stating that they are his friends. In such cases, dial-100.
- Apart from lodging complaints with police and cab management, taking it to the transport department will lead to stringent action on the erring cab drivers.
