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 Uber, which had employed the driver even though he had been arrested
on allegations of sexual assault three years ago, would be
blacklisted from providing any future services in the New Delhi
area, the city's transport department said in a statement.
The attack is the latest to draw attention to the dangers faced by
women in the world’s second-most populous nation. Even after the
enactment of new laws imposing stricter penalties and establishing
fast-track courts, India is struggling to tame attitudes that leave
women vulnerable to harassment and rape.
"Keeping in view the violation and the horrific crime committed by
the driver, the transport department has banned all activities
relating to providing any transport service by the www.Uber.com,"
special commissioner Kuldeep Singh Gangar said.
A spokeswoman for Uber said she could not immediately comment.
The arrested driver, Shiv Kumar Yadav, appeared in court on Monday
and was remanded in custody for three days. He was arrested on
charges of raping a woman three years ago but was later acquitted,
police said.
Indian police said they were considering legal action against the
taxi service for failing to run background checks on the driver. The
company said there were no defined rules in India on background
checks for commercial transport licenses and it was working with the
government to address the issue.
"What happened over the weekend in New Delhi is horrific," Travis
Kalanick, Uber’s chief executive officer, said in a statement before
the ban. "We will do everything, I repeat, everything to help bring
this perpetrator to justice." Police said the 32-year-old driver
dropped the woman home after attacking her and warned her not to
inform the authorities. She managed to note the driver's number and
take a photograph of his car, they said. The sexual assault happened
two years after the fatal gang rape of another young woman taking
public transport in New Delhi. That case led to nationwide protests
and forced the government to address demands for heavier sentences
for rape.
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NIGHT TIME DANGER
India is the fourth-most dangerous place for a woman to take public
transport, according to a
poll published in October by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. It was
ranked second-worst on safety at night and for verbal harassment.On
average, 40 cases of crimes against women are registered daily by
Delhi police. This included at least four cases of rape every day,
the Minister of State for Home Affairs Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary
told parliament last week.Monica Kumar, a clinical psychologist who
heads the Delhi-based Manas Foundation, said many taxi drivers were
migrants from less-developed areas where patriarchal attitudes
remain prevalent and were not accustomed to seeing women out alone
late at night or dressed differently."The conversations about the
changing scenario in cities like Delhi where women are becoming more
empowered are just not happening," said Kumar, which runs
gender-sensitization classes for rickshaw drivers.
The criticism of Uber comes at a time when the company has faced
critical news coverage over its driver screening in the United
States, and has apologized for comments by an executive who
suggested "digging up dirt" on journalists investigating the firm.
That has not stopped the San Francisco-based firm from raising
investment that values it at $40 billion, reflecting the perceived
potential of its expansion into high-growth markets like India.
(Additional reporting by Nita Bhalla; Writing By Andrew MacAskill;
Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Nick Macfie)
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reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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