Proper bus stands, toilets & well-lit parks need of hour in Bengaluru: B.PAC’s women safety audit report

Bengaluru: The Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC), in association with their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) partner, IT company CGI, has released its B.SAFE Constituency Public Place Safety Audit Reports for Vijayanagar and Govindarajanagar Assembly Constituencies on Saturday.

The reports were based on in-depth assessment of 265 public places across six key categories frequently accessed by women – nine Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) wards in Vijayanagar and 10 BBMP wards in Govindarajanagar, said T K Siri, Programme Lead, B.PAC.

According to her, this is phase three of B.SAFE Constituency initiative of B.PAC, which aims at creating safer public spaces for women through a comprehensive approach that includes safety audits, community awareness programmes, action plans, and sustained advocacy.

“In Phase 1, we audited Mahadevapura and Malleswaram in 2020, and in phase 2, we looked at Hebbal and Dasarahalli in 2022,” said Siri.

The reports were released in the presence of Priya Krishna, MLA of Govindarajanagar, and Srividya Natraj, Vice President from CGI.

The audit covered 46 Anganwadi Kendras, 131 bus stops, 58 parks, 10 PHCs, four police stations, and 16 public toilets across both constituencies, added Siri.

Siri said in all six constituencies, bus stands and parks are not entirely safe for women and they did not have access to toilets in some places.

For instance, in Vijayanagar constituency, of the 11 toilets audited, five were not even kept open through the day and of the 52 bus stops there, 41 required better lighting. Also, of the 24 parks surveyed, 95 percent of them require security guards, she pointed out.

During the study analysis of the audit conducted across the nine BBMP wards in the Vijayanagar Assembly Constituency and 10 BBMP wards of Govindarajnagar, the analysis revealed that the overall public place safety score for the constituency can be improved.

The audit was conducted by the students of RNS College of Architecture, Bengaluru.