Women safety: Delhi government to deploy marshals in city buses

NEW DELHI: In order to ensure security of women in public transport, Delhi Government has decided to deploy 2,500 marshals in buses plying in the city.

The government is currently providing training to personnel of Home Guard and Civil Defence as marshals to prevent and deter crime, especially against women passengers, in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and orange-colour cluster buses.

"As per our plan, 2,500 personnel of civil defence and home guards are now being trained as marshals in first phase. They will patrol in buses in groups. Each group will have 3-4 marshals. They will soon start patrolling buses," Transport Minister Gopal Rai said.

According to the government, the marshals will be given walkie-talkies so that they can contact each other.

"The idea behind deploying these marshals in groups is that they can prevent and deal with crime completely in buses. If one marshal is deployed in buses, so he may not be able to prevent two or three persons involved in crime and in view of this, we have decided to deploy marshals in groups. They will also be given walkie-talkies by the government," he said.

The government also has plans to install CCTV cameras in all DTC buses. So far, DTC has managed to install CCTV cameras in 200 buses in first phase.

"The government will also install CCTV cameras in a phased manner. We are now working on this project," the minister said.

In its pre-poll manifesto, the Aam Aadmi Party promised to set up Women's Security Force made up of a 10,000-strong Home Guard.