On the occasion of International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to announce we’ll gender sensitize 100,000 drivers by the end of this year to ensure they’re more courteous and attentive to the needs of women riders. 

We have expanded our partnership with the Manas Foundation, a Delhi-based NGO working in the field of mental health, gender equity, and justice, to hold virtual gender sensitization sessions for drivers on our platform in 34 cities across India. 

Since the beginning of our partnership in 2018, we sensitized 63,000 drivers through in-person sessions conducted across 7 Indian cities. After a brief halt in sessions due to COVID-19, our association with the Manas Foundation will now help in delivering sessions virtually over Zoom. 

These virtual meetings will educate drivers on how men and women use public transport systems, the extent of harassment women face in public spaces and highlight the role of drivers in addressing the issue. They will also learn how to modify their professional behaviour to make women feel safer and commit to being a part of the solution.

Commenting on the partnership, Monica Kumar, Co-Founder, Manas Foundation said,  “We take drivers as important stakeholders in making public transport safe and equal for women. They play a crucial role to promote women’s mobility and these gender sensitization sessions are designed to make them socially responsible and activate behavioral change.  We are pleased to expand the gender sensitisation program with Uber and are confident that these new virtual sessions will be received well and we will be able to contribute towards enhancing women’s safety.”

Sharing her support for the partnership, Rekha Sharma, Chairperson, National Commission of Women (NCW), said, “It’s heartening to see Uber India working with sincerity and purpose to implement gender sensitisation of driver partners on its platform through a partnership with the Manas Foundation. Today, they are beginning their initiative to sensitise drivers through online sessions, an innovation brought about by the pandemic. I congratulate them for successfully sensitizing 63,000 drivers through in-person sessions and wish them the very best for the next phase of the program to sensitize 100,000 drivers. Such behaviour-change interventions will go a long way into setting the best possible safety standards for the transportation industry and in creating safer public places  for women.” 

From March 8,  we will conduct gender sensitisation sessions for drivers on our platform across  34  Indian cities in a staggered manner. These include:

State Cities
Delhi Delhi
Maharashtra Mumbai, Nagpur, Nasik
Karnataka Bengaluru
Tamil Nadu Chennai, Coimbatore
West Bengal Kolkata
Telangana Hyderabad
Uttar Pradesh Kanpur, Agra, Lucknow, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur
Andhra Pradesh Visakhapatnam
Rajasthan Kota, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Udaipur, Ajmer
Gujarat Vadodara, Surat, Ahmedabad
Punjab Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh
Bihar Patna
Jharkhand Jamshedpur, Ranchi
Madhya Pradesh Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur
Orissa Bhubaneshwar

We understand that safe transportation for women has a huge impact on the choices they make and the opportunities they can access. Globally, we have pledged $5 million to thought-leading women’s safety organizations through 2022 as part of our Driving Change initiative.  

We have also relentlessly striven to harness technology to enhance rider safety on our platform through a host of safety features. Our dedicated 24X7 Safety Helpline number allows riders to speak directly to our safety team should they have an urgent, non-emergency issue, during a trip or up to 30 minutes after the trip has ended.