Participatory Safety Assessment (PSA)

A large part of the project focuses on enhancing leadership among both boys and girls to take action on creating safe spaces within their schools, ITI and villages in order that girls may be able to able to access available opportunities to further their education and choice of career without fear of harassment.
Participatory Safety Assessments is a tool that has been developed by Martha Farrell Foundation and PRIA which is based on principles of participatory research. The tool provides a spatial analysis of safe and unsafe spaces of a locality and can be used easily by communities irrespective of their age or education status. A very empowering tool as the activity is facilitated and led by communities and based on lived realities and experiences of women and girls. The core objective of conducting a PSA exercise is to develop an appropriate strategy to reduce incidences of sexual harassment in public spaces. It has proved to be very useful in the past when we have seen youth from other youth led projects of PRIA and Martha Farrell Foundation leading campaigns and other activities for translating unsafe spaces into safe spaces based on the findings of the assessment.
Members of youth clubs (formed under the project) in the 10 villages identified through the project conducted PSAs in 10 villages, 10 government schools and 5 ITIs. While it was important to understand the safety issues for girls in these spaces, there was also a felt need to understand the attitudes and mindsets existing within individuals residing within these spaces as key factors that impacted on women’s safety.
Some of the findings from the PSA:

• Own basti:
• Girls expressed that places close to their houses/basti are safe because they are easily accessible and also they know people around these spaces.
• Girls avoid going to any space outside their own basti. If they do go then they are always accompanied by other women/girls/male member of the family.
• Isolated areas (isolated roads, lands and fields):
• Boys felt that most of the places were safe for girls except for areas that are isolated and dark
• Girls expressed that boys take advantage of isolated and dark areas, they were all marked unsafe by girls.
• Presence/absence of women was the parameter by which girls assessed spaces for being safe or unsafe. They expressed having a sense of safety in the presence of women, indicating that the presence of boys and men on the other hand makes them feel unsafe. 
• Perpetrators:
• Boys said that the girls of their village are like sisters to them so they will never think of harassing them. However they expressed that girls are actually harassed by the boys from other villages and bastis.
• Public places:
• Girls had expressed that places like schools, farm, courtyard, Aaganwadi, banks, ITI schools, railway stations, auto stand were found to be safe in the morning but become highly unsafe in the night as boys and men use these places for their leisure time in the evening.
• Girls also expressed that hospitals and other health centers like CHC, PHC are safe until the doctors and other staffs are there but become unsafe when they leave. These places are usually situated on the outskirts of the village where women/girls do not have access after the noon time. Moreover men use these spaces for their leisure time after noon time.
• Boys stand in group in the crossroads. Eve teasing, commenting, chit chatting and playing loud Haryanvi songs- this is what they do while standing there. This creates an unsafe environment for girls.
• Houses of worship:
• Temples were found to be generally safe spaces by girls except during festivals when everybody comes to temples when it becomes highly unsafe. Men and boys take advantage of this situation and harass girls and women.
• Presence of liquor shops:
• The whole atmosphere around the shops is unsafe and uncomfortable girls felt. They shared that the liquor somehow seems to give men a license to stare and pass comments at girls and women
• Village pond:
• Unsafe: Boys and men come to village pond to bath their cows/buffalos and other cattle. They take advantage of this situation and when they see women and girls passing by, they start passing lewd comments. These men can also be seen having a bath in their underwear in full public view of girls
• Public transport:
• Lack of public transport is major problem for girls, they have to sometimes wait for 2-3 hours to get an auto or bus.  While doing so, boys/men on bikes harass and stare at them.
• Places like auto or bus stand are safe when people are around during the daytime but become unsafe in the late evening/night.
• Schools:
• The walls of the schools are also very short in height so anybody can jump inside the school.
• Schools are safe till noon time but after school, schools are used by men and boys to play cards, smoke and drink