Public Transport from a Gender Perspective: Insecurity and Victimization in Latin America. The Case of Lima and Asuncion Metropolitan Areas

Abstract

Lack of security is the main concern of citizens in the region. Crime and violence distort the allocation of resources by governments and businesses and alter citizens’ routines. This is particularly the case for women. This paper measures women’s perceptions of insecurity and victimization on public transport in the Asuncion (Paraguay) and Lima (Peru) metropolitan areas and analyzes their influence on mobility patterns. An innovative methodology, which considers both users and nonusers of public transport in a representative sample from those metropolitan areas, is used. The paper concludes that both women’s perceptions and experiences of insecurity when using public transport, especially in the Lima metropolitan area, are among the worst in Latin America. This is associated with lower public transportation use; therefore, it limits women’s transport options, directly affecting their mobility and causing economic and time loss. About 30% of women in Lima and 6% of women in Asuncion area reported being victims of crime on public transport systems, while 79% in Lima and 24% in Asuncion have witnessed episodes of violence against women on public transport in the past 12 months. More than one third of women have suffered sexual offenses on public transport at some point in their lives. More than 80% of women do not report these crimes. Policies to enhance women’s security on public transport are analyzed as they are key to promoting gender equality.

Appendix

Collection of Data

Prior to collecting data, survey takers were recruited with the goal of increasing their confidence, especially regarding questions related to gender violence, and in this way increasing the reporting rate. Toward this end, four days of training were held for the survey teams in both cities in 2016. The training addressed general aspects of the project, functions of each of the posts, questions included in the survey, and protocols to approach women household heads. Guidelines for asking questions related to gender violence were also explored, and general instructions were provided for the field work. A survey pilot was then conducted in each city during which between 80 and 90 surveys were distributed in high-, medium-, and low-income areas in order to corroborate the relevance, correct understanding, and duration of the questions included in each survey.

The objective sample was of 600 women in Lima and 600 women in Asuncion, stratified by economic level. A sampling methodology was applied in which there was a random selection of six neighborhoods in Asuncion and six areas (zonas) in Lima, with two each corresponding to high-, medium-, and low-income levels.

In the case of Lima, the classification by strata is based on data from the Household Targeting System (Sistema de Focalización de Hogares - SISFOH). This is a fundamental instrument used by the Peruvian government to meet the need for social information regarding household socioeconomic characteristics. The SISFOH uses an index to stratify households in seven different categories¹³ that were regrouped in order to obtain three income levels: low (less household income or well-being, low or very low income), medium (medium-low and medium-high incomes), and high (high incomes and higher household incomes and well-being). Using these categories, an average was established by area of classification and, subsequently, areas were selected by strata.

In the case of Asuncion, there is no clear classification of neighborhoods by income due to the large variation in incomes within each neighborhood. In order to clarify neighborhoods in a manner similar to Lima, a process using multiple sources was carried out that involved preparing a geo-referenced database of neighborhoods of Asuncion with the database at the district and block level, obtained from the 2012 census by the Office of Statistics, Surveys, and Censuses (Dirección General de Estadística, Encuestas y Censos (DGEEC)). This database is complemented with data on unmet basic needs (UBNs) disaggregated by neighborhood, such as quality of housing, access to education, and subsistence level, and data on income, poverty, inequality, and severity of poverty from the 2002 census.

For the classification of neighborhoods, a UBN index by neighborhood was created putting together strata 1, 2, and 3 (2 + 3) and 4 and 5 (4 + 5). Once the indexes were composed, the average UBN level was obtained (by adding the strata allocated per UBN and dividing it by the number of UBN variables), using the function of rounding to the nearest whole number. This gave us a general classification of the neighborhood. To finish, a regression was carried out of the independent variables for income, poverty, and severity of poverty in accordance with the established strata.

The field work was then initiated, using the established protocols (details in Section 2) and complying with the requirement that the surveys by neighborhood and by strata reflect a distribution of 75% (450 surveys) of the participants who used public transport and 25% (150 surveys) of those who did not use it. This result was achieved in metropolitan Lima, but in Asuncion the distribution was 45:55% on average without a specific pattern for each strata. For example, the proportion of participants who use and do not use public transport among the low-income strata in Barrio San Cayetano is similar to that of Barrio San Jorge, which is classified as high income. Attaining the desired distribution therefore had important implications on the field work. In light of this, it was decided to follow the strategy of random selection up to obtaining 100 observations per neighborhood at the expense of obtaining the desired distribution. Tables A8 and A9 show the neighborhoods included and the size of the sample by strata.

Table 8 Surveys conducted in Metropolitan Lima by district

Table 9 Surveys conducted in Metropolitan Asuncion by district

Clarifications on Field Work

The greatest difficultly in the field work in Lima was the outdated addresses of some dwellings in the SISFOH database. For this reason a change was made to the originally planned sampling strategy that did not involve modifying the areas previously selected but rather the manner in which the dwellings were selected. Instead of randomly selecting dwellings from the SISFOH database in each area, a geographic point on the map of the area was selected, and the field team then went in four directions (north, south, east, and west) and conducted surveys of each third house. Specifically, the protocol consisted of conducting interviews in every third house along the lines indicated, and if the dwelling indicated was not occupied the team went to the dwelling immediately following. If the dwelling was an apartment building, the third floor was selected. If there was more than one apartment per building, the first apartment to the right of the entrance to the third floor was surveyed.

In addition, there was a protocol with respect to re-visiting households. Households were visited up to three times in the event that no one was home or the household head was not there at the time of the previous visit. In cases of outright rejection, the household was not used. Taking into account the rejections in the area, it was decided to select several geographical points in each zone. This strategy was sufficient to achieve the objective of the surveys in low areas, given that they typically have a low rejection rate.

In the case of medium and high areas, which have a higher rejection rate, surveys were conducted in every third house on all the streets of the area using as a starting point the geographic lines and points previously established. This strategy was sufficient to achieve the objective in the medium areas. In high areas, given the high rejection rate, all homes in the area were surveyed.

Maps

Map of Survey Area in Lima

Map of Survey Area in Asuncion