GEMSpeak: #RunSafe - How Can We Make Chennai Safe for Women Runners?

by Preeti Aghalyam

It has been an honour and a privilege to be identified as one of the Gender Equality Mobilisers (G.E.M.s) for 2014 by Prajnya. I look forward to participation in the movement beyond the 16 days campaign as well. For now, here is a round up from me:

Background:

I am a runner and as a vociferous member of the Chennai Runners club, have been talking recently about the safety of women runners on the streets of Chennai. A safety that I have always taken for granted. In the past couple of years, with the number of women runners increasing fairly dramatically, the number of incidents of groping, pushing, pinching, shouting, scaring, and general harassment have increased. I often find that women take this as par for the course and try not to talk in public about it, sort of accept it. I hope to break that mind-set, and also of course, figure out ways and means of keeping ourselves safe, enjoying our runs, and sending a clear message to the population that we won’t accept any harassment.

What we did:

• Safety Audits
• Social Media Discussions
• Signature Campaign 

A brief description:

If you drive or walk around in the Alwarpet/Mylapore area at normal times of day, chances are you will feel perfectly safe. It is busy, with commercial establishments, shoppers, pavement fruit sellers, and commuters. There aren't that many thriving tasmac shops. But we run at 5 am, when it’s dark and stray dogs are our only companions. A set of #SafetyAudits using the #SafetiPin app was a great way to kick start what I had named the #RunSafe campaign.

The discussions continued into the Social Media space then, targeting not only women runners in Chennai, but also all across the country. I invited friends to share their experiences using a googleform, which led to a discovery that some pockets of the beautiful Besantnagar area need a deeper look-in. I hope to spearhead some #SafetyAudits there in near future.

I also shared a number of ‘tips’ suggested by various people on how to ensure your own safety during runs. Such as from this handy site & sparked off discussions on what women are doing today in India. From knives to pepper spray to never running alone to this lady who resorted to violence there are many things to think about here. My daughter made us this pic to illustrate some of the very basic things:

Meanwhile, Anil, a friend of mine felt so enthused by it all that he wrote this blog post which is one of the best compilation of Safety Tips I have seen.

Finally, at The Hindu Health & Fitness Expo on Dec 6^th, as a precursor to The Wipro Chennai Marathon 2014, when 1800+ women ran on the streets of Chennai in three races (10, 21 & 42Km), we ran a suggestion board/signature campaign.  This was at once educational (we should have included cyclists in this campaign, not just runners) and inspirational (children gave us suggestions that make a lot of sense!).

Final words:

There is lot more to be done. My aim these past couple of weeks was to get people talking about this important issue of safety, in a general manner. All the talk has to lead to action. Some of it is individual – we all have to make changes. But a large part of it is lies with the administration, and as democratic citizens the responsibility is on us to drive it. I am going to use the #RunSafe tag often in the future, for sure.

Meet Our GEMS: Preeti Aghalayam

RUNNING SAFE

by Meera Srikant

Preeti is a Professor in Chemical Engineering & the Chairperson, Women's Forum, at IIT Madras. She has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has worked as Assistant and Associate Professor at IIT Bombay. A life-time running addict, Preeti participates in several marathons and half marathons through the year. She is also on the organising committee of The Wipro Chennai Marathon, 2014, and a member of the vibrant Chennai Runners club. She is passionate about books, running, women's issues, and math, and is forever being put in her place by her 10-year old daughter (and resident critic). She shares why Prajnya campaign is important to her..

Why is this issue important to you?

I have specifically chosen to concentrate on the issue of raising awareness on safety on the streets for the increasing number of women runners we have in our midst. I am an extremely passionate runner, and as part of the organising team of several running events, I have discovered that one big reason women hesitate to get out into the open air for their exercise is that they feel unsafe. I have lived in several cities in the US and India, and have always managed to find the opportunity to enjoy the primal experience that running is, and I want to spread that joy. On a somewhat parallel note, as a professor, I also hope that my participation will enthuse my students, the younger generation, to come out and take up these issues and use their boundless energy and intelligence to come up with solutions.

What is it you feel most strongly about?

I want to feel safe, and free, and happy. I love my adopted city Chennai. I feel like it has a certain something, hard to put into words. The weather is terrible, and there are so many annoyances, but still, it has this character that I love - an unexpected congruence of the traditional and modern. I strongly feel that it has the potential to show the rest of the country, the world, how a metropolis ought to be. I want to make that happen - in my own small way - by ensuring that it is safe for all of us, to, say, enjoy a sweaty morning run in the semi-darkness of dawn, if we so wish, in various parts of this beautiful city.

Tell us about your activity and what you hope to do with it

First, a small group of us will conduct a Safety Audit in the area that we frequent a lot (Alwarpet), and populate the SafetiPin app with this information, from an early morning runner/walker perspective. Second, I have put together a small FB/Twitter campaign with the tag #RunSafe that will (hopefully!) get people talking about various issues they have faced in the past, and what solutions they think are possible. There are a handful of safety issues that are not exclusive to women, and a bit more to do with being on foot in roads that are increasingly taken over by vehicles, hopefully we will talk about that as well. Finally, I hope that towards the end of the campaign, there will be an opportunity to implement at least a few of the suggestions that emerge, and in addition to talking about it, demonstrate some action. 

Three things you would suggest to keep these individual actions going

I think involving the City administration in this activity is key, obviously. I am confident that they will be supportive.

I also feel that every institution could and should commit to examining their environs from a safety perspective, and individuals can champion this, perhaps as a New Year pledge.