Start Pink Car Pool Cabs in Delhi/NCR

To the Managing Directors of Cab Service Companies in the NCR region. 

As you are well aware that Delhi/NCR is not one of the safest cities for women. In fact, it is called the Rape Capital of the country and for reasons that substantiate this claim. 

According to Centre for Social Research, recent figures released by the National Crime Records Bureau reveal that a shocking 1 in 4 rapes in Indian cities take place in Delhi. The city also witnesses two fifths of kidnappings or abductions of women, 15% of dowry deaths and 14% of molestation cases. The number of cases of rape reported nationwide has grown at an alarming rate: from 15,031 cases in 1998, to 18,233 in 2004 and a shocking 21,397 in 2009. Delhi has seen the number of cases of rape reported dip since a high of 658 in 2005, but it remains the location of more than double the number of rapes than in other Indian cities, including Mumbai (182), Bhopal (117), and Jabalpur (76). 

However, Delhi is also a city where opportunities are growing by the day as many independent and private investors have set up their bases providing employment opportunities as well as entertainment avenues for many. Particularly, it is a city where everyday women are breaking the boundaries for themselves and demanding rights and spaces equal to those granted to men. With greater globalization of commerce, ethnicities, cultural practices and customs, we as a city must strive to move away from its earlier reputation as an 'urban village' to a global metropolis. And this evolution is only possible if women are at par with men and this empowerment process begins with the freedom of movement and the security assured in it. 

I would like to appeal to your companies to start a cab services to be driven by female drivers and run exclusively for women. Mumbai has already started this initiative with the Pink Cab services and many other modern metropolises in the world have similar provisions for women. 

The implementation of this suggestion in effect would serve as a security for women especially in the wee hours of the night as well as provide employment and instill a greater sense of independence in them.  In the interest of your business and profits. I would like to further suggest two additional measures:

- There should be a subsidization of prices in the late night services for women.

- In order to cover the costs due to the subsidization, car pools should be run by nearby areas from where the bookings are placed. 

This move on your part, I believe will not only make your cab services, which believe in innovative ideas for growth and social service, the ' go to' option for all women in the city but will also demonstrate as an exemplary CSR initiative of your company . 

Yours truly,

Makepeace Sitlhou.