Walking down the narrow lanes of Delhi’s Mangolpuri, it’s hard not to notice a neon ‘logo’ stamped on the side of a few shops and houses. While passersby might be intrigued by this strange graffiti, and may even attribute it to spray can enthusiasts tagging the odd wall, there’s a much better explanation.
This neon mark, designed with the silhouette of a woman next to the words ‘Surakshit Shehar’ (safe city), is carried by 100 houses and shops in Mangolpuri which have been demarcated as ‘safe houses’ for women to use at any point, night or day, if they feel any sort of threat. Any woman who knocks on the door of one of these homes or stores will be provided with a secure space immediately.
Mangolpuri is a low-income area in North Delhi, with a high local crime rate. This community initiative, launched by the NGO Plan India as a part of their larger ‘Safer city’ program in alliance with ‘Women in Cities International’, aims to address risks faced by women in city spaces.
Its first phase includes 100 families and shopkeepers across five blocks in the area who have agreed to provide ‘safe houses’. All these participants, in a meeting held on March 5, were informed about safety issues for women and children in the locality, and were specifically trained to handle the situation if someone knocks on their door. The group was also introduced to local police officials at the area’s station. AV Baliga Memorial Trust, an NGO that has been working in Mangolpuri for the last 35 years, has tied up with this initiative to ensure residents of the ‘safe houses’ have clean records, and are reliable.

“We first ensure that the victim is secured from the harassers before we attract the attention of like-minded people from the neighbourhood. One of us is supposed to dial the police number in the meantime. But, we have been advised not to engage with the people posing threat to the victims,” explained Rachna, the resident of a ‘safe house’. The number of eve-teasers and loiterers who often harassed women walking alone in the area has been reduced, since the fear of the police being called at any sign of harassment has acted as a deterrent.
Future plans aim at replacing the current logo with luminescent ones, so they can be spotted better in the night. In South Delhi, Plan India has joined hands with another NGO to implement a hundred ‘safe houses’ in Madanpur Khadar. Explaining why these two districts were chosen, a Plan India official stated, “Mangolpuri and Madanpur Khadar were selected because of the high rate of crime against women there. The success of this pilot project will decide whether or not we take this initiative to other vulnerable areas in Delhi.”