By Express News Service HYDERABAD: A survey undertaken by the Society for Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC) on Paying Guest (PG) rooms and hostels in the IT corridor has shown that the compliance to the security requirements by these establishments is merely 59 per cent. The SCSC visited nearly 197 places and checked them for various security features like boundary walls, CCTVs, and well-lit corridors, and found just half the establishments were fitted with these mandatory requirements. The audits were taken in three cycles from mid-2018 to 2019-end by nearly 100 volunteers of SCSC and police from Madhapur, Raidurg and Gachibowli areas to ascertain the safety preparedness. During the first visit, the hostels were checked under 10 criteria of safety. These included points such as updating the visitors’ book, a gatekeeper, CCTVs at entry and exit points with night vision or even a basic GHMC licence. Establishments without any of these were given a three-to six month notice to implement the same. "The whole idea is to rate such places based on safety as several other platforms rate them solely on indices of hygiene or lifestyle. We made 10 non-negotiable criteria for safety at hostels and stuck these posters," explained Pratyusha Sharma, Joint Secretary of Women’s Forum in SCSC. A re-audit after the stipulated period showed only 59 per cent compliance. "We have now uploaded the data on She Safe App," Pratyusha added. The team is now planning to go for another manual audit in a few month’s time. "The main issue is that no agency has any list or data of all these hostels. Till now, we are relying on police’s knowledge of their jurisdiction. However, there may still be some gaps. We intend to fix this and encourage women to make their own entries on the App so that we are apprised of hostels not known to us," added Pratyusha.

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