Amidst the outrage, Delhi and most of India lost a reasonable mode of transport. Wonder if people are at a lesser risk, being forced to use worse transport services. Sermons about society’s falling morality don’t solve something immediately, and it’s not an India specific problem as we know from a similar incident in Boston. Blame uber, whose Shiv Kumar got caught in a day with their records, while we have hundreds of unsolved cases where the criminal never even got identified.
A few years ago, there were a bunch of similar tragic incidents in call center cabs, driving the regulators to enforce GPS devices / security guards across cabs. Being in an LBS tech company, we were brainstorming of more effective and preventive technical solutions to the problem.
Women driven taxis are a great idea, but can’t scale fast enough to ensure every solo female is driven by a female driver, who’s further left driving around alone late at night. And 1 moron doesn’t make the other 99% well meaning male drivers potential rapists.
Looking at it more as a technology driven approach, a few things could help :
– If an Uber can reach you in a matter of minutes, how about having the underlying technology powering every Police Van and every Bike-Cop? Enable them to respond swiftly to any calls for help. Penalize Uber and use the funds to do this!
– if you feel unsafe at the start of the ride (you’re alone, it’s late, you’re drunk / sleepy/ it’s a new city – whatever), Use an option to enter your destination in the app and turn ‘Track Me’ on. The driver must follow the designated route and any unscheduled stoppage, detour or delay would raise an instant alert.
– There are wearable devices now – like a pair of bluetooth earrings, that just have one emergency button to trigger alert.
– Why alert just 3 friends and 1 family member. They can’t reach you in time. Raise an alert to every app user in the range of 1-2 km – other cab drivers, nearest police vans / bikes, active citizens, a dedicated Emergency Assistance Desk run by the Cab provider to co-ordinate action in such situations. Mayday calls for instant attention from all around.
10,000 phones with cops x 10,000 rupees per decent phone = 10 Crore rupees. $1.7 million. Not quite beyond the reach of a state govt. to spend on citizen safety. Or charge a 100 Rupee fee to 1M citizens. But make the cops savvy, responsive and sensitive about the topic
– The chances that even the most demented of minds will attempt something, knowing it’ll take minutes before they’re caught, are significantly lower. This is preventive deterrence till we find a better solution.
Wonder if our dear government would be willing to think more on these lines than give knee jerk reactions and jump at ideas like drones, which I have serious doubts will be effective in any real way. Maybe Uber can set this up and earn the approval of social organizations and women users alike. A chance to redeem it’s pathetic reputation with caring about people.
Lost! 
Have you heard of predpol…this company offer predictive policing to the police departments…I have been in touch with this company to help pitch their service to our Delhi police dept…It helps police allocate their resources and patrol more efficiently with three data parameters – Crime type, place and time…Accordingly, they can send the night patrol to most sensitive zones…it will be better than merely launching himmat app which requires victim to be a smartphone user with app…its more reactive isn’t it?
The further extension of this through technology can be an app backed by public crime data and on the fly crime info(app shudnt be only user-driven)..an app which can give pop ups or crime insights bubbles while yu are on the move…”You have entered a high crime zone, be alert!” types..