New Delhi, Nov 25 (IANS): Global ride-hailing major Uber in partnership with Manas Foundation ---a Delhi based NGO, held gender sensitisation workshops for over 50,000 driver partners across eight cities this year, the company said on Monday.

Uber's gender sensitisation workshops cover relevant topics like violence against women and its impact on them, gender and how gender roles are reinforced, the role of driver partners in addressing this issue, how to modify their professional behaviour to make women feel safer, legal implications and facilitating a social commitment to being a part of the solution.

These workshops are held in batches, daily, across Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Bengaluru and Chennai, consisting of an in-person module to driver partners facilitated by the NGO trainers.

"Our goal is to enable safe transportation for women, which in turn has a huge impact on the choices they make and the opportunities they can access," said Pavan Vaish - Head of Central Operations, India and South Asia.

"We are very pleased that our gender sensitisation initiative has been very positively received by our driver partners who display their certificates with great pride inside their cars," Vaish said.

In addition to continuing to develop technology that contributes to the safety of all those who use Uber's app, it has been partnering with the Manas Foundation since last year to customise sessions for driver partners to ensure they're more courteous and attentive to the needs of women riders.

"We are very excited to scale up this distinctive programme with Uber to engage men in taking ownership of the safety of their women passengers," said Monica Kumar, Co-Founder, Manas Foundation.

"The training helps clarify what encompasses sexual and street harassment and it is this understanding of the issue that has been crucial to the change in the treatment of women - as commuters and members of their own families," she said.