bangalorebeats

Safety Tips for Using City Transport

The IBN wrote that a delhi based 26 year old women who came to Bangalore as a tourist that she has been kept captive and gang raped is a shocker. She also alleged that her nude photographs were taken. In her complaint she told a taxi driver helped her rent a room at a service apartment when she arrived in the city on December 5.  Next day, two men allegedly barged to her room, doped her and raped her. So people who are new to the city, specially women should be careful of befrending cab or auto drivers. The police is now telling that the women may be a liar and the incident may not be true as they claim few lapses. Whatever may be the truth, one should take caution given the trends in these incidents. Few of the following tips may be followed as safety measures:

 1. Do not disclose if you are staying alone.

2. Do not discuss private details, bank details or secure info while travelling in a cab or auto as much as possible.

3. Do not try to befriend them.

4. Never ask them to visit your home.

5. You may ask for a location or a generic question but never ask them to find a house for you specialy if you are a women and alone.

6. This may not arise, however never give your mobile number or telephone(landline) number. Through the numbers your address can be extracted.

7. Women may avoid taking a ride in a auto or cab after 11 pm alone. During night try always to travel in a group. Guys can also take a note of this to an extent if you are travelling to the outskirts or sparsely inhabited areas. There have been incidents of people been mugged up. There was many news of such incidents in the NGEF – Ramamurthy Nagar stretch at night. Better to avoid such stretches alone at night.

8. If you are in a group still keep some form of defense at night. Women must take this seriously. Now a days lots of self defence tools are available in the market. You may choose like a spray, chilli powder, a small knife etc.

9. Typically people from the IT industry and other professionals perceived as soft targets are targeted. People who are new or from outside Bangalore are mostly victims of such incidents. So take on this and make yourself strong. Take some lessons in self defence like karate, kung-fu, judo etc. Go gym, build your body – do not be a soft target. 

10. Inform your family members, your room mate or one of your friends if you are going anywhere at night. If you are hiring a cab note down the cab number and driver’s name. If you are traveling by auto, you can find all this info on the driving licence display card. During night time you may pass this info to family members or someone. This can come handy in case you go missing.

11. Lastly be alert. If you smell something foul, try to get out of it as soon as possible. Also, possibly inform a friend, room mate or a family member about it along with the location.

I understand that the whole cab or auto community is not bad but a few rotten eggs among them are too dangerous to be overlooked. Hence, these cautions are needed. Bangalore is safe to a great extent but a few rotten eggs’ activities are very disturbing.