Graveyard shift gets safety boost

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The after-dark hours are a living nightmare — if you’re a woman in the capital who happens to be out late at night. Recently, a woman working in a pub in a mall was gangraped by six people in an apartment after being abducted at 3 am from the Mehrauli-Gurgaon road. As crimes against women continue to escalate in the capital and NCR region, many companies are taking added measures to ensure the safety of their women employees who work the graveyard shift.
“I quit my previous job as we were required to work late night shifts. Now, I am looking for a day job where I can reach home by 8 pm,” says Sheila Dasgupta, who hails from Midnapore in West Bengal and stays in a PG in South Delhi.
Corporates in the NCR are adopting added measures to ensure that girls who work graveyard shifts reach home safely. Apart from deploying guards in company vehicles and instructing the driver not to leave till the employee steps inside her home, there are also confirmation calls made to women employees after they reach home, to ensure they have reached safely.
“We have made it mandatory for authorities to call each and every female employee who is dropped by cabs after 8 pm to check if they have reached home safely. Moreover, we hold a mothly meeting with all the employees who use the cab facilities and get their feedback,” says Tarandeep Singh Saini, HOD Transport of a leading MNC in Gurgaon.
Not only this, corporates in NCR have instructed the cab drivers to drop and pick employees only from designated points, and not at any other place. In case of an emergency, the employee has to ensure there’s someone to recieve her. “Initially, my family was skeptical about my late night shifts, but after they started receiving calls from the transport department to check if I’m home, they’re much more relaxed now,” says Sangeeta Medhi from Guwahati, working in Gurgaon.
“I’m glad that our company takes special care of their female employees. The cab leaves office only after ensuring that no one has been left behind and the drivers are quite friendly and always ready to help in any given situation,” says K. Shalini who works as senior HR executive in Gurgaon.
There is also a thoroughly background check of the cab drivers before employing them. “We follow a proper method before recruiting any driver. We only deal with registered cab service providers. If there’s any trouble with any of our cab drivers, he is immediately sacked,” says S.S. Mishra, who handles cab-related queries in an MNC in Noida.