In a first in India, Mumbai featured female pedestrian signage in Dadar traffic signals in order to encourage gender equality.
Maharashtra's Tourism and Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray announced about the signal and 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!”
Thackeray appreciated BMC officials for implementing the idea and wrote further: “Applauding the effort of @mybmcWardGN Assistant Commissioner @DighavkarKiran ji on this.
Thank you MLA @misadasarvankar ji, @mayor_mumbai @KishoriPednekar ji, and MC Chahal ji for your support!”
The initiative has been proposed under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) ‘Culture Spine’ project, s a pet project of Shiv Sena's Aaditya Thackeray.
Other countries including Europe and Australia have also taken similar measures to promote gender equality. Australia's Melbourne city has been using female pedestrians in their traffic lights since 2017.