Overview
- The National Commission for Women issued the guidelines on Monday, October 5, 2026, calling for physical panic buttons, real-time route-deviation alerts, monitoring of prolonged or suspicious stoppages, and 24×7 command-and-control centres operated by aggregators.
- The guidance requires in-app driver identity verification and high-resolution driver photos and says any unauthorised change in driver or vehicle should be flagged as a safety concern under Clauses 15.4 and 14.9 of the 2025 Motor Vehicles Aggregator Guidelines.
- The NCW asks aggregators to conduct criminal-antecedent checks, police verification and periodic background reviews, provide regular safety and gender-sensitisation training, and build a verified pool of women drivers with an option for women traveling alone to request a woman driver where feasible.
- For late-night trips the recommendations include mandatory driver photo verification at trip start, steps to detect and address driver intoxication, automatic sharing of ride details with trusted contacts where opted in, a safe-drop option, and a mechanism for escalation to law enforcement along with penalty-free cancellations for driver/vehicle mismatches.
- The document is an advisory that asks States, Union Territories and mobility companies to operationalize the measures and report compliance, leaving implementation, technical changes by aggregators and enforcement arrangements as the next material steps.