The Gender Lab at the Greater Chennai Corporation is expecting feedback from members of the public on their experience in using the parks in the city to make them more inclusive and safer.
Though the online survey has received close to 500 responses, the civic body has decided to extend the last date for the survey by another week till September 16. “We want to hear feedback from as many people as possible,” said D. Sneha, Deputy Commissioner (Education), said.
The survey had 15 questions. Apart from basic information regarding the survey participants, the questions revolved around purpose of use, frequency of use, favourite features, suggestions for making the parks more welcoming and suggestions for making the parks more safer.
Ms. Sneha said the feedback would be incorporated while developing the 150 new parks to come up in the city as part of the Singara Chennai project. The feedback has been collected as part of the discussions organised by the Gender Lab with various stakeholders, which included non-governmental organisations and self-help groups.
Stating a number of interesting suggestions were received as part of these discussions, she said one such feedback was about the GCC-operated gyms being unfriendly to women. “Many felt that the types of equipment installed in these gyms are mostly the ones used by just men,” she said. The idea of the survey was to receive more such feedback from the larger public.
The GCC has been taking punitive measures on private players who failed to maintain the parks as per the stipulated standards. Of the 738 parks belonging to the GCC, the maintenance of 571 has been outsourced to private players on contractual basis. In the past two weeks, the civic body has imposed a fine of ₹1,93,400 to these contractors for improper maintenance.
Those interested can participate in the survey through this link: https://tinyurl.com/2p9cnvr3. The link is also available on the GCC’s website under the Quick Links section.
