For many young women in the National Capital, the daily journey to college is planned around long stretches, crowded bus stops and the availability of a phone within easy reach, yet caution persists even under a woman chief minister whose government has repeatedly described safety as a priority.

“My administration has made women’s safety not just a promise but a priority of governance,” said CM Rekha Gupta.

Adding that dark spots, PCR patrolling, panic buttons and women’s facilities in public transport, and One Stop Centres offer immediate assistance.

She announced in her first budget that “it is proposed to install 50,000 new cameras in Delhi,” in addition to the roughly 2.8 lakh already operating across the capital.

In January 2026, addressing a National Commission for Women programme at Bharat Mandapam, Gupta said 10,000 advanced cameras and one lakh sensor-based LED lights were being installed across the city.

The past few weeks have exposed a gap between these announcements and conditions on the ground.

A 16-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped on a moving bus that travelled about 47 kilometres past several checkpoints without being stopped, and the vehicle already had 11 traffic challans against it.

In a separate case, a minor was allegedly sexually assaulted in the Aastha Kunj park in Kalkaji, which renewed questions about the safety of isolated and poorly lit public spaces.

Speaking on a Times Now podcast, Gupta acknowledged that the bus had not been inspected, described it as an administrative lapse.

“Police would be made mandatory for drivers and conductors, including those employed through private agencies,” she added.

Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar has directed the DCPs of 15 districts to identify poorly lit locations, malfunctioning streetlights and non-working CCTV cameras in their areas, and has asked for more regular patrolling of parks, bus stands and secluded stretches.

The directive addresses a problem that installation figures do not capture, whether the infrastructure keeps working after it is put up.

Women students and working professionals continue to feel unsafe while travelling at night despite the existing camera network, The Tribune reports.

An earlier field report found surveillance cameras had not significantly eased their concerns. A switched-off camera records nothing, and a streetlight that fails within weeks turns a lane to darkness.

Laws alone cannot ensure the safety of women and girls unless they know their rights and the protections available to them, Gupta said at the Delhi Commission for Women meeting.

She also asked the commission to run campaigns in schools and colleges on the POCSO Act, cybercrime and complaint procedures, which may help students report offences, although they do not change the conditions at an unlit bus stop late in the evening.

“Tenders have been issued for about one lakh new streetlights linked to sensors that alert a control room when a fault occurs, a system intended to speed up repairs,” said the Delhi CM.

If it works as described, it would address the maintenance failures that critics have long pointed to, and its results will be visible in whether the routes students use daily are actually lit and monitored after dark.