Uber Scales up Gender Sensitisation Workshops for Driver-Partners

Uber, the world’s largest on-demand ride-sharing company has partnered with Manas Foundation, a Delhi based NGO working in the field of mental health and gender equity and justice for the last 15 years, to scale up their gender sensitization workshops for its driver-partners in Kolkata.

Kicked off nationally with sensitising more than 6900 driver-partners in 2018, this partnership aims to strengthen Uber’s commitment towards sensitizing and educating driver-partners to create a safer platform for riders and drivers. The partnership has seen an enthusiastic response from the driver-partners. The sessions are conducted twice a day for 6 days a week, with each of them being attended by 20-30 driver-partners on an average in Kolkata.

Uber believes that violence against women is a widespread problem in India, one that needs to be addressed with a multi-sectoral and collaborative approach. Technology has the power to transform how we address safety and create these new alternatives, but at the same time, a lot needs to be done, specifically to deploy scalable sensitising solutions.

Pavan Vaish - Head of Operations, India and South Asia said that at Uber, they believe in the transformative potential of technology to create these new alternatives, but at the same time, they recognize that they still have a lot to contribute, specifically in terms of how to confront structural and systemic social phenomena such as gender-based violence. Kolkata is a key market for them and to further reiterate their commitment towards providing safe mobility to all those who use the Uber app, they are scaling up their gender sensitization workshops delivered by Manas Foundation in the city. They have seen an overwhelming response from their driver-partners who display their certificates with great pride inside their cars, he said.

Adding to this, Monica Kumar, Co-Founder, Manas Foundation said that they are very excited to scale up this distinctive program with Uber to engage men in taking ownership of the safety of their women passengers. These sessions involve participatory activities that clearly explain the concept of gender and how the laws governing gender discrimination and abuse have changed over the last few years. The workshop helps clarify what encompasses sexual harassment and it is this understanding of the issue that has been crucial to the change in the treatment of women – as commuters and members of their own families, she said.

Furthermore, Uber has introduced several innovative features to bring transparency, accountability and strengthen the safety of riders before, during and after a trip. Uber has recently launched 24/7 safety helpline, which is the latest in a series of initiatives, the company has initiated. It has also recently come up with a safety toolkit for riders and drivers; call anonymisation to protect the privacy of riders. Besides, it has also introduced a comprehensive background checks mechanism for drivers and an updated community guideline, which outline the behavior expected of riders and drivers on the app to foster mutual respect. That’s not all. The ride-sharing company also has a 24/7 safety response team for riders and drivers to ensure seamless post-trip assistance, along with a dedicated law enforcement response team for assisting police with any information they might need, officials said.