Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to introduce female symbols on pedestrian signs and signage in Mumbai, to promote gender equality.
In a first such initiative in the country, the BMC is changing the road signs and pedestrian signals at 13 junctions on Cadell Road, a 4.5-km arterial stretch in Mumbai’s Dadar and Mahim, to begin with.
This road — home to the Siddhivinayak Temple, Mahim Dargah, Mahim Church, B.R. Ambedkar’s memorial Chaityabhoomi and the proposed site for the memorial of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray — is being spruced to develop a “cultural spine” in the city.
The concept is a pet project of Maharashtra Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray, and also involves setting up vertical gardens behind bus stops, better footpaths and guiding tiles for the visually impaired.
The BMC has already changed signals and signage at one of the 13 junctions included under the plan, while the rest will be put in place by Monday, according to Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner in charge of Mumbai’s G North administrative ward.
“Many cities across the world have changed their signage to promote gender equality, but Indian cities are yet to catch up. This makes Mumbai the first Indian city to have gender-sensitive signage,” Dighavkar told ThePrint.
“We are anyway giving a lot of new innovative features to Cadell Road, so thought we could take the initiative and have gender-sensitive signs and symbols as well to send out a strong message,” he said, adding that if it is received well, the BMC may replicate the idea at other locations in Mumbai as well.
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Thackeray shared photos of the newly-installed signs at the junction in Dadar on Twitter Saturday.
“If you have passed by Dadar, you will see something that will make you feel proud. @mybmcWardGN is ensuring gender equality with a simple idea – the signals now have women too,” he tweeted.
If you’ve passed by Dadar, you’d see something that will make you feel proud. @mybmcWardGN is ensuring gender equality with a simple idea- the signals now have women too! pic.twitter.com/8X0vJR8hvQ
— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) August 1, 2020
‘Inexpensive intervention that can go a long way’
This intervention makes Mumbai the first Indian city to join the league of global cities that have installed gender-sensitive signage.
However, according to Dighavkar, this intervention came at a very low cost. The BMC has spent less than Rs 25,000 crore on the project at the 13 junctions.
“For the signals, all we need to do is change the stencil,” he said.
Procedurally as well, the project just required a no-objection certificate from the Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), who confirmed that the idea does not violate the Indian Road Code and approved the change.
The 13 junctions, where signs with female symbols are going to be installed, have 120 pedestrian signals put together. This means, the BMC is effectively working on 240 signals, considering each signal has a red and a green light, Dighavkar said.
German, Dutch cities have gender-sensitive signage
Many German cities such as Dresden and Cologne have female symbols on their road signage, along with male ones. The signs are popularly known as the Ampelmann and Ampelfrau in German. Simply translated, Ampelfrau means ‘traffic light woman’.
Several cities in the Netherlands, too, have female signs on traffic lights, a pony-tailed figure popularly known as ‘Sofie’. She was first seen in the Dutch city of Amersfoort in 2000.
Australian city Melbourne also took the step in 2017, while Switzerland’s Geneva decided to put up female symbols on signals earlier this year.
A few other cities such as Vienna and London also have pedestrian lights featuring same-sex couples.
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