Uber Responds After Woman Reports Harassment By Driver Who Wrote, ‘Jaldi Aao Babu Yaar, Mann Ho Raha Hai’

Despite significant progress in gender equality, women continue to face harassment that undermines their safety and freedom. A recent incident highlights this grim reality where a female lawyer who booked an Uber ride received lewd messages from the driver. When she filed a complaint, the lack of a satisfactory response from the company compelled her to bring the matter to public attention.  To say that soon after the matter went viral would be a sheer understatement.

Female lawyer harassed by Uber driver, frustrated by company’s response

In a deeply troubling incident, Tanya Sharma, a lawyer from Delhi-NCR, faced harassment after booking an Uber ride. Upon informing the assigned driver, Jitendra Kumar, that she would be five minutes late, she received an inappropriate and lewd message from him, which read,

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“Jaldi aao babu yaar, man ho rha hai.”

Shocked and disturbed by this behavior, Tanya canceled the ride immediately and reported the incident to Uber.

However, the company’s response left much to be desired. Instead of taking swift and meaningful action, Uber sent her a generic and sympathetic message, which Tanya found grossly inadequate given the seriousness of the incident. Frustrated by the lack of accountability, she took to social media to share her experience. Posting screenshots of the offensive texts and Uber’s passive response, she voiced her concerns about the safety of women in public spaces, even in so-called posh areas of the city.

“We live in the 21st century, and still, things are so pathetic and traumatic for people daily that even an auto driver can harass you in broad daylight… in one of the poshest areas of the city. I booked an Uber, and within five minutes, I started getting disturbing texts. I canceled the booking and filed a complaint, but Uber India’s grievance redressal process seems to involve sending a sympathetic message to the victim and then forgetting about it. Is this how it works?”

In her social media post, Tanya further criticized Uber’s grievance redressal system and questioned the company’s responsibility for ensuring passenger safety. She highlighted the potential danger to other women during the 48-hour period Uber claimed it needed to address her complaint.

“What if this same thing happened to other women during these so-called 48 hours of your policy? Are you ready to take responsibility for my safety and the safety of those women out there?”

Her brave decision to speak out on the matter made her post go viral.

Have a look at her whole post

Here is how netizens reacted

Netizens shared their outrage after getting to know about the lewd messages. Many even shared their tales of bad experience with Uber rides.

Uber bans driver after viral post sparks intense backlash

After Tanya Sharma’s social media post detailing her harassment by an Uber driver went viral, the company faced intense public backlash. People expressed outrage over the incident. The widespread criticism put significant pressure on the company, prompting it to take decisive action against the driver involved.

Responding to the growing outrage, Uber permanently banned the accused driver, Jitendra Kumar, from its platform. In a follow-up post, Tanya shared the news and also thanked everyone who supported her. She also thanked everyone who shared their own stories and acknowledged the collective effort that brought about the action. While she expressed relief that the driver could no longer harass other passengers, she emphasized the importance of escalating such issues and raising awareness to ensure better safety measures for women in the future.

“Thanks for everyone who supported and shared their experiences. I’m grateful that people around me was actually there for me in this situation and Uber addressed and banned the driver from Uber platform, so he cannot do this to anyone else.. but please escalate such matters with seriousness and more importantly let others aware.”

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