A women's rights body has called for regulating operations of mobile application-based taxi services in the country in the wake of alleged rape of a 27-year-old finance executive by a Uber cab driver.
"This incident not only reminds us of the harrowing Nirbhaya case but also tells us clearly that women's safety is an issue that gets compromised time and again, fails to get addressed in a decisive manner it needs to be and is still far from being a priority for any government in power," said Indira Jaising, Executive Director of Lawyers' Collective Women's Rights Initiative.
"We are disappointed to see the attitude of government and internal disagreements on how to deal with foreign corporations like Uber, who are not only flouting norms but take refuge in the fine print that the drivers conduct and in this criminal offence is not the responsibility of the company," said Jaising, also a senior advocate in the Supreme Court of India.
She was speaking at the launch of two legal resource books in Hindi titled, "Locating the survivor in the Indian Criminal Justice System: Decoding the Law" and "A Guide for Survivors of Sexual Violence".
During the launch, British High Commissioner to India James Bevan said, "No one would seriously contest that women and girls face huge problems in India. But nor can one contest that there has been significant progress in this country over the last two years in tackling those problems."
He lauded the role of individuals in the Indian legal system fighting for women's rights, bureaucrats, non-governmental organisations, among others.
Highlighting that feminism should be for everyone, Bevan said, "It is the radical notion that women are people. I am proud to call myself a Feminist.
"There is a magic bullet for development which is educating women," he said, adding, educated girls become empowered women and they make their own future.
The two books, which navigate through the criminal justice system and locate the survivor in the Indian criminal justice system, have been published by the Lawyers' Collective and co-published by the British High Commission.
