I am sitting down to pen my thoughts after a very very long time because i am shocked and shaken beyond words. Till now i have been a regular commuter in private cabs however the last incident of the girl being raped by the Uber cab driver has left me insecure and worried. It is a cab service which claims to focus primarily on safety and security more than anything else hired a cab driver who has not only committed a hideous crime but also had a criminal record. So is it to be believed that these private cab services are so desperate to cover the market share that they do not care who they are hiring? No background checks are done before appointing a driver?If it is so then girls like me who don't own a car yet want to move around freely should forget doing it anymore. We should only step out in the so called safer hours from 9am to 5pm and lock ourselves in our houses after that or else risk ourselves into becoming another rape victim.

There are n number of cab services in all the big cities like, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, etc and a lot of women hire their services to travel safe and on time. We believe that when they are charging us a hell lot of money, the least they can guarantee is that we reach our destination safe and sound. If a prestigious cab service like Uber fails to do so, i wonder will other cabs be able to keep up to the expectations.

It is high time that companies like Uber realize their responsibility and take all possible measures to ensure safety for all, especially women. They should not only do a proper background check of the drivers they are hiring but also do motivational programmes and schemes for the drivers to keep them focussed. They should be a part of the training sessions where they are educated and made to realize the preciousness of human life and how to respect a woman. There should be live tracking of all the cabs which should be monitored from their back office and driver shouldn't have the control to turn off the live tracking.

Next time, i book a private cab service, i am going to be extra vigilant about the service being offered and i do urge the same to all my fellow women commuters.