KOCHI: Night shifts, variable working hours, increasing work pressure and the location of the Infopark on the outskirts of the city point to the fact that IT professionals in the city are forced to travel at night. With increasing incidents of violence against women what remains to be seen is whether there are enough mechanisms in place to make night travel trouble-free.Compared to several other working atmospheres the IT professionals, especially those working at night, have their benefits. For instance, all women employees can avail themselves of free cab services after 8 pm. But despite these advantages, the very cultural lifestyle of some of our cities have made travel at night a difficult exercise. “We live in a society where the bulk of travel happens in the day. Hence there are more systems in place during day time. In spite of all the repeated incidents of atrocities against women, it is unsafe for women employees to travel at night for even short distances after boarding off the cab,” says IT expert V K Adarsh. Moreover, a lot of vehicles, like the heavy industrial vehicles, trucks carrying wastes, vehicles carrying materials from the port are diverted for night travels. Many of these drivers are not well-trained, he says. But the traffic police say that there are sufficient measures taken to ensure security. “We have a sitting police officer at every police subdivision of the rank of a Circle Inspector. There are 10 flying squads and an AC level police officer for night monitoring. Besides, heavy trucks are employed only on national highways, Assistant Commissioner (Traffic) Mohammed Rafiq says.Many are also of the opinion that the cab drivers employed by the company also have an important role to play. “These cab drivers are often made to drive at erratic time frames. They are often deprived of sleep. The companies must ensure that there are enough cab drivers to meet the need. The government cannot be expected to do everything,” says an Infopark employee, on conditions of anonymity.
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