Chennai Corporation Steps Up Women's Safety in Public Spaces and Transport

The Greater Chennai Corporation has initiated coordinated measures alongside educational institutions and civil society groups to enhance the safety of women across public spaces and public transport networks in the city. A coordination meeting in this regard was held at the Ripon Buildings complex on Thursday under the leadership of Corporation Commissioner G.S. Sameeran.

The discussions focused on strengthening safety protocols and awareness levels for women travelling via buses, railway stations, Metro stations, and app-based cabs, as well as on college campuses and in other public areas. Representatives from various colleges, non-governmental organisations, and government departments took part in the session organised to address commuter safety and related civic concerns.

The civic body's Gender and Policy Lab has been executing awareness drives regarding women's safety and access to social welfare schemes across the city. During the meeting, officials addressed safety challenges across multiple modes of transport and highlighted emerging technology-related threats, particularly the potential misuse of artificial intelligence to generate misleading or inappropriate representations of women.

To counter campus-level issues, the Corporation advised higher education institutions to strengthen their internal grievance redressal procedures. Colleges were asked to appoint dedicated nodal officers for women's safety and to put structured systems in place to handle gender-based complaints. The civic body further recommended creating women's clubs or student groups within colleges to establish structured platforms for discussions and awareness campaigns.

Several prominent institutions were represented at the meeting, including Queen Mary's College, Ethiraj College, Loyola College, Women's Christian College, Madras School of Social Work, Anna Adarsh College, Guru Nanak College, D.G. Vaishnav College, and Nazareth College of Arts and Science.

Joint Commissioner (Works) C. Saravanan and Dr. Lejis, head of the Gender and Policy Lab, were also present at the meeting alongside other departmental officials.