Safer cities for girls = safer cities for all

This article was written by Anja Stuckert, global lead for the Safer Cities program at Plan International.

Seema*, 14, lives in one of the poorer areas in South Delhi.

“Sexual harassment is a daily reality for girls in my neighbourhood. We have to endure frequent incidents of boys and men flashing at us in public spaces. We feel safe nowhere,” she says.

With rapid urbanisation, more people now live in cities than ever before, many of them girls. But cities are rarely planned with women or girls in mind and their continued exclusion from urban planning and governance is resulting in various manifestations of gender inequality.

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Sexual harassment like that which Seema encounters is frighteningly common among girls and young women in cities worldwide. On the streets and in most public spaces, as well as on transport, they face intimidation and harassment — just because they are young and female.

According to research carried out by Plan International in five global cities — Delhi, Kampala, Lima, Madrid and Sydney — girls and young women are at risk from sexual violence, kidnapping, robbery and verbal abuse at all times of the day and night. Groping and catcalling are widely perceived as normal.

A city planned for women and girls

Unsafe in the City, which was based on more than 21,000 online testimonials gathered via the interactive online map Free to Be, found, for example, that in Lima 84% of the girls reported sexual harassment in public spaces.

The research found that girls and young women are frequently led to believe they are to blame for the abuse and harassment they face, as witnesses often just watch and do little or nothing to help.

“Many girls feel there is little point in reporting crimes to the authorities because they have neither the will nor the skill to do anything about it”

Many girls feel there is little point in reporting crimes to the authorities because they have neither the will nor the skill to do anything about it.

Girls want to contribute to building cities that are safer, friendlier and more aesthetically pleasing, but they are often are not able to participate in city planning.

Cash-strapped city governments often do not prioritise girls’ safety, nor their participation in urban governance, preferring to focus more on infrastructure projects than addressing social issues, which are typically more complex and take longer to generate change.

Frequently, they lack awareness of girls’ specific needs and simply do not appreciate the value of involving them in planning or decision-making processes.

This is unacceptable. That’s why Plan International is prioritising urban safety for girls, through our Safer Cities for Girls program, to ensure that girls growing up in cities are safe, free from harm and involved in decision-making processes that affect their safety.

Making cities safe, accountable and inclusive for adolescent girls involves working with municipal and national actors and policymakers to make laws and city services more receptive and inclusive to girls’ safety.

How we move from A to B

We believe that girls should grow up free from all forms of violence and that local authorities — especially mayors — play a central and critical role in transforming cities into sites of safety for girls in all their diversity.

Effective strategies, like holding discussions between community members, old and young, and training boys and men in gender equality, help target the cultural preconceptions, gender norms and peer pressure that negatively affect the perception and treatment of adolescent girls.

They can help challenge the idea that victims of sexual harassment are to blame, that harassment only happens at night or that older people never harm girls.

“Local authorities should enable high-quality, meaningful and effective involvement of girls and young women in their urban work”

Local authorities should enable high-quality, meaningful and effective involvement of children and young people, especially girls and young women, in their urban work.

In Delhi, Plan International gave young adolescents scorecards to evaluate services in their city and share their concerns with the local authorities. An action plan was drawn up to address the challenges, which included establishing safe houses for girls.

In Kampala, adolescent girls conducted safety walks to identify dangers in local neighbourhoods and formulated recommendations for improvement. The city has since installed additional traffic lights, security lights and paved pedestrian walkways, which have enhanced the safety of girls in the city.

Urban safety interventions should also specifically target public and private transport personnel to positively influence their behaviours and increase awareness about girls’ safety. Transport staff and managers are key to ending sexual harassment of girls as they travel from A to B.

In Cairo, Plan International Egypt is using art as a way to teach tuk tuk drivers that girls in their community deserve respect. A group of trusted drivers has also been identified who can be relied upon to transport girls to school in safety.

Despite current advances in policy reform, many gaps remain in ensuring urban safety. Municipal and national actors must ensure that laws criminalise all forms of gender-based violence against women and girls, including sexual harassment. These laws then need to be enforced more effectively with sufficient budget allocated to ensure full policy implementation.

There’s no time to waste. Let’s take action now.

— Anja Stuckert

Picture credit: Semina Psichogiopoulou on Unsplash

*Name changed to protect her identity