Safe Travels: Transport Advancement and Women’s Safety in India

Abstract

Beyond fostering inclusion and connectivity, does investing in mass transit impact crimes against women? I study the impact of the expansion of the metro rail system in Delhi, India, on reported crimes against women. Preparing a novel data set of the universe of crime reports at the police station-day level, and leveraging the staggered opening of metro stations across these police jurisdictions between 2016 and 2019, I find a 29 percent decrease in reported incidents of sexual harassment against women in public spaces following the opening of the first metro station in the police jurisdiction. This reduction in reported sexual harassment is neither linked to an overall decrease in reported non-gender-specific crimes in public spaces, nor substituted by an increase in such crimes in metro stations or trains. Further analysis of crime reports from alternative public transport networks, combined with area safety data from a crowd-sourced mobile application, suggests that this reduction is driven by the enhanced safety provided by the metro network.