How are other cities ensuring public safety in low-income housing clusters at night?

[Anonymous]

Our CCTV coverage is patchy and informal settlements lack streetlights. How are you addressing this?

[niveditaraj.92-gmail.com]

Ensuring public safety in low-income housing clusters and informal settlements at night is a serious urban governance challenge across the world, especially with inadequacies in CCTV coverage and street lighting.

Thus, the following multi-pronged, context-sensitive strategies across the world and Indian cities have helped enhance safety across these spaces.

COMMUNITY BASED PARTICIPATION
1. ENERGY AUTONOMY: Medellins, Columbia

Despite lack of technical training, this settlement comprising Columbia's internally displaced victims built a hydraulic generator using spoons, cycle wheels and computer batteries and produced electricity to light up the otherwise dark colonies.
By involving locals in design, construction, installation and management of their own energy solutions and offering free training programmes in the generation and use of solar energy, Medellin as an equatorial city has become a pioneer in developing sustainable localized solar energy solutions like solar lighting, solar ovens, distributed energy generator, solar powered local radio leading to mainstreaming of the city's marginal areas.

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Something brewing in India as well:
a. "Light Up Laitumkhrah" – Community Solar Street Lighting in Shillong’s Informal Settlements
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c. "Safe Streets for Shibpur" – Solar Lighting in Informal Settlements of Howrah, West Bengal- AI based lighting solutions .
d.Install solar-powered LED streetlights with motion sensors and CCTV-equipped poles in high-risk zones.

2. COMMUNITY BASED SURVEILLANCE:
   A. Mumbai's Women Led Night Patrols organized by the city's informal settlements, women's groups organize patrols and create "safe routes" for women and children.
   2. PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING- Pune, India
   Mohalla Committees Initiative of Pune is effective in finding solutions to local issues like poorly lit colonies in which residents can allocate municipal funds directly to safety and lighting projects in their communities. They now function at almost all civic wards of Pune.

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POLICY/SOCIAL INTERVENTIONS:
3. NIGHT-TIME ECONOMY PLANNING/ 24/7 CITIES:
The Model Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Act 2015 was passed to permit eating joints, movie theatres, malls, and local markets with more than 10 employees to remain open round-the-clock.

The first lesson from global cities could be that there are four pillars for nighttime cities: the local government, the police, the business community, and the citizens.

Eg: NIGHT CZAR INITIATIVE, LONDON The Mayor of London in 2016 appointed a ‘Night Czar’ and also set up a ‘Night Time Commission’ for the city. The Night Czar brings together the local authorities, businesses, police, residents and workers to work towards the Night Vision,which is hinged on creating a safe, yet economically and culturally vibrant city. The Night Czar also embarks on ‘Night Surgeries’ – meeting people who work and live in the nighttime areas which include hospitals, shopping marts, restaurants and call centres. The role of the Night Time Commission is to seek the views of Londoners on policies and new initiatives to ensure that the community is involved in this endeavour.

Eg: The night life around Kathipara Urban Square, Guindy, Chennai is believed to have positive ripple effects on the surrounding areas due to its round the clock functioning making women working in the IT sector in night shifts feel more safer on their way to offices/homes.
Eg: In North Chennai’s informal settlements, reflective paint and solar string lights were added to reduce accidents and increase women’s mobility.

TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN:
4. A. CIVIL SOCIETY AND SAFETY AUDITS
NGOs like Safetipin map unsafe areas using local data and advocate for lighting and policing improvements.
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Delhi's safety audits data of Safetipin has been used by the 'Mukhya Mantri Street Light Yojana' (Chief Minister’s Street Lights Scheme) as inputs to where lighting could be improved. The Delhi Police also used Safetipin’s data to reformulate their patrolling routes.
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B.MOBILE EMERGENCY MECHANISMS/ APPS- Awareness to be created
a.KAVALAN SOS App of Tamilnadu Police
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to report unsafe areas and alert authorities quickly.
b.Localized Emergency Response and Help Points: In Delhi’s JJ clusters, mobile vans equipped with lights and helpline access serve as roving safety hubs at night.

            Enhancing lighting and safety in informal settlements directly supports **Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities**, by making urban spaces inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. Integrating solar-powered lighting, smart surveillance, and community participation not only improves night-time safety and mobility, especially for women and children, but also boosts liveability by enabling access to public spaces, education, and livelihoods after dark. These **locally-adapted, low-cost innovations** reduce crime, foster trust, and empower residents to co-create safer environments. Cities that prioritize such solutions build a foundation for **equitable urban growth, climate resilience, and dignified living** in low-income housing clusters.