Delhi polls: Dear parties, is 'CCTV' the only answer to women security?

When elections come near, all the political parties start sensing the pulse of the voters and make tall promises to them. BJP also released its 'vision document' and tried covering each and everything in it, but unfortunately gave the 'statehood' issue a miss despite the fact that it was the saffron party which started the debate on this issue in the 1993 elections.

Issues like zero tolerance towards corruption, reduction of electricity bills, women's security and installation of CCTV cameras in colonies and buses find mention in the manifestos or vision documents of all the parties. Amongst these issues galore, 'women security has been raised very prominently by all the competitors.

Whenever women safety has been discussed, these parties have talked about the installation of CCTV cameras in buses and every nook and corner of the national capital. But is 'CCTV' really the answer to the question of 'women safety'?

The manifesto/vision document of three major parties, i.e. Congress, BJP and AAP have promised a windfall of freebies to turn the tide of voters towards themselves. Taking a leaf out of each others book, these parties have been vouching for things which are weak point of voters, but who will get the benefit of this is yet to be seen.

On one hand where BJP and AAP have promised to reduce water rates, the BJP and Congress have talked of increasing the number of power distribution companies to give options to the consumers and not to forget the promise of regularisation of unauthorised colonies.

Where BJP did not mention granting full-fledged statehood to Delhi, AAP and Congress have promised to do it if they will come to power.

Housing for all, making Yamuna pollution-free and scrapping BRT are some other issues mentioned only by the BJP and passage of Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill within 15 days of coming to power and making Delhi a free wi-fi zone are some of the promises made only by AAP.

Dear parties, is 'CCTV' the only answer to women security?

All the parties while doing rallies, in their manifestos have been saying that to make Delhi safer for women, for women security we will install CCTV cameras in the national capital. But what our dear parties need to understand is that by just installing CCTV cameras women of your city or country will not be safe.

Dear political parties, CCTV cannot be taken as a ‘one-size-fits-all' answer to crime against women in Delhi. Everyone saw what happened on the CCTV camera when a female doctor became a victim of acid attack. Hence, installing just CCTV cameras is not a deterrent to crimes against women.

In Delhi there are areas where not only women even men are not safe as there are no street lights. There are areas where no policing is present, no conveyance is there to commute.

Our respective parties talked about installing CCTV cameras but for these CCTV cameras to be of any use, streetlights will also be needed. So first please get better basic facilities in Delhi so that women at least feel safe to walk in the streets of Delhi.

Close contest of all parties in Delhi election

Just to grab the fence sitting voters, parties have made some promises but how many of them will really help the cause will be seen once the elections are over. In the past week, opinion polls have shown that it is going to be a close contest in these assembly elections but by making these hollow promises nothing will happen as majority of voters have already decided whether they will go with the Arvind Kejriwal or with someone else.

Promises to make Delhi a world-class city have been made but a lot will be needed to make these statements a reality.