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Friday, January 2, 2015

My analysis of the news “Uber horror: Delhi police nab rapist cab driver in Mathura”

Dear readers,

Wish you all happy, prosperous and healthy 2015!!!

…continued from previous post

Yesterday I happened to come across an updated post on www.msn.com  about the topic under discussion at the moment on this blog. I’m not a regular reader of www.msn.com or for that matter anything J. However, since I came across this post would like to share this with you.

The post has been titled >>> Uber cab rape victim breaks her silence:  See something, say something

Sincerely appreciate the struggle that victim girl is going through and support the decisions, actions and stand she and her family took after the incidence took place.

While continuing from the previous post, my next point of analysis is about the company ‘Uber’


Point# 3

One point worth notable from the original post I had come across on MSN is ‘all it required for that driver to compromise safety is mere deletion of a smartphone app’???
What fucking non-sense!!! On what basis this international company called ‘Uber’
has been claiming to be safer alternative for women in Indian cities like New Delhi. (Thank God ‘Uber’ is at least not claiming to be SAFEST alternative for women safety! So appreciate its honesty. ;))

I thought of checking about this company on internet. First thought came to my mind was of course to check for details on www.wikipedia.org.

The third paragraph from the article on www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_(company) says:
‘Uber is the subject of ongoing protests from taxi drivers, taxi companies and governments who believe that it is an illegal taxicab operation that engages in unfair business practices and compromises passenger safety. As of December 2014, protests have been staged in Germany, India, Spain, France, and England, among other nations, while incidents involving passengers have been documented. In December 2014, Uber was banned in Spain, and two cities in India, and continues to be involved in dispute with several governmental bodies, including those of the U.S. and Australia.’

I wonder why should Indian people trust so much on this company? Simplest thing that driver could do was delete the smartphone app? Could not company like ‘Uber’ build safety feature with every cab driver that application could not be deleted by anyone but by authorised company personnel after cab driver reports at nearest company office (to ensure there is no passenger in the cab and all his next scheduled pick-ups have been cancelled by informing respective passengers and rescheduling the same with other available cab drivers) before he (any driver) could walk out of the network? However, with such feature the next question comes to my mind is may be ‘Uber’ is struggling to find cabs for its network? May be… may be not. And this easy join, easy exit option may be one attractive feature to pull in more cab drivers as possible, while both company and cab drivers are struggling to reach comfort zone before they could trust each other for long term business relationship. May be… may be not.

The old post says after the incident being reported ‘Uber’ company released the following statement:
“We became aware of the incident this morning. Safety is Uber's highest priority and we take situations like this very seriously. We are working with the police as they investigate, and will assist them in any way we can to determine what happened. It is also our policy to immediately suspend a driver's account following allegations of a serious incident, which we have done. In India, we work with licensed driver-partners to provide a safe transportation option, with layers of safeguards such as driver and vehicle information, and ETA-sharing to ensure there is accountability and traceability of all trips that occur on the Uber platform.”

I read this statement and could not help myself but smiled ironically.

Uber says. “Safety is Uber's highest priority and we take situations like this very seriously.”  The question pops up in my mind is, ‘is India the first country where this company has launched its operations?’ Uber has been founded in March 2009 in The United States. Uber has been operating in many countries, banned in Spain and has been in dispute in many countries for unfair business practices and compromising passenger safety.  (source Wikipedia article).
How seriously Uber has taken such incidences so far to make its application more intelligent and smart? One need not be so intelligent to make a smart guess on this one.

Next ‘Uber’ statement says: “We are working with the police as they investigate, and will assist them in any way we can to determine what happened”
Most important thing ‘Uber’ has to understand here that, The Driver deleted smartphone application!!!

Further ‘Uber’ statement says, “In India, we work with licensed driver-partners to provide a safe transportation option, with layers of safeguards such as driver and vehicle information, and ETA-sharing to ensure there is accountability and traceability of all trips that occur on the Uber platform.”
Which layers of safeguards????? Today’s post on www.msn.com where Victim has spoken out further on this: “And Uber, the taxi-hailing service that I had trusted, had employed a driver with a criminal background, without a (Public Service Vehicle) badge. I later learnt that they had also neglected a complaint by another female passenger, Nidhi Shah, about driver Shiv Kumar Yadav’s conduct, and failed to take action.”
I wonder if Uber meant ‘layers of safeguards’ or ‘veils ignoring safeguards'?

I think there should be general public protest against this company by not opting for its cab network.
Not just in Delhi but anywhere in India wherever this company has been operating at the moment. But then the next question is how many other and better and more reliable options are available to the general public?

Certainly, efforts of the Delhi Police are worth appreciable while arresting criminal in time.

The next question is how strong case they would be able to build and what course of action the existing Legal system takes/ decides to punish the criminal to discourage such incidences in future.

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