Coinciding with the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign, the UN Women’s representative for ASEAN, Jamshed Kazi, has commended proactive steps taken by Indonesian ride-hailing company Gojek in maintaining women’s safety in public spaces, stating that it is everyone’s right to feel secure.
UN Women conveyed its appreciation to Gojek during the launch of the After Dark report at M Bloc Space, South Jakarta, on Dec. 11. Gojek corporate affairs senior manager Alvita Chen said the initiative intended to maintain women’s safety in public spaces.
One in three women in Indonesia has experienced violence in their lifetime, according to a nationwide survey commissioned by the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry and conducted by Statistics Indonesia (BPS). These acts of violence occur predominantly in urban neighborhoods, on the streets, on public transportation and in other public spaces.
Not only does this unfortunate situation limit women and girls’ freedom of movement, but it also hinders their access to essential services to study, to work and to conduct daily activities in public. To provide a solution to this, Pulse Lab Jakarta, an innovation data lab, teamed up with the United Nations agency, UN Women Indonesia and the Indonesian government to carry out After Dark research.
Kazi wrote that he was proud of Gojek, as an Indonesian icon, for paying great attention to the issue of sexual violence against women.
“Zero tolerance towards harassment is a value that must be upheld by all industrial sectors,” he wrote.
Changing culture and changing mindsets is core to creating a sustainable safety culture. Gojek has done well in voluntarily educating its drivers, a progressive business move all industry players must follow.
It may come as a surprise to many, why a technology company is providing its partners with, among many, the capacity to offer first aid assistance and to help victims of gender violence. But the data is clear. More than 1 million driver partners absorbed the online education material, hundreds joined the offline training and some others became knowledge evangelists in their communities.
Going forward with its #UninstallKhawatir (Uninstall Anxiety) campaign, Gojek has launched several safety features since early 2019. Features in the campaign include the emergency button, which in case of emergency, Gojek’s team will ask for the passengers’ locations and dispatch its special unit. This feature is available for Go-Car services across Indonesia and the Go-Ride service in Greater Jakarta.
There is also a “share trip” feature, which allows passengers to inform their loved ones to track their journey.
Gojek also guarantees its driver quality by screening every driver through the company’s controlled end-to-end recruitment process. Candidates must submit their ID card (KTP), driver’s license (SIM), vehicle registration certificate (STNK) and, lastly, police certificate of good conduct (SKCK) before being accepted into the company.
The feature launch also coincides with the company’s vision of making a widespread social impact.
“Women earn their living with our company and our female users rely on our service for a more productive life,” Alvita said.
As a pioneer of education on sexual violence in the ride-hailing industry, Gojek is proud of its education module that includes witness intervention, which is in line with After Dark research results.
Alvita added that, at Gojek, safety solutions were created thoroughly from three foundations – prevention, protection and handling.
“We continuously emphasize prevention so that a safe culture can be created for all sides within the service ecosystem,” she said.
