In A Special Attempt To Protect Women From Harassment, BMTC Divides The Bus Into Half For Female And Male Passengers

Reaching out to put your ‘Dupatta’ in ‘place’ to cover yourself up and people because of those staring eyes are making you uncomfortable. Amidst covering yourself, you realise that someone is ‘touching’ in a way that shouldn’t be and it all starts with, “Bhaiya, dhang se khade rahiye, thoda tameez se” says a woman commuter to a fellow passenger travelling with her. “Arre Madam, bheed hai, aap bhi dekh rahi hai, tow bhi bol rahin. Thoda adjust kar lijiye,” comes a reply from that same passenger who was continuously harassing that woman under the excuse of “Bheed.” Opposing the excuse, the woman says “Itni tow jagah hai, phir bhi aap gire jaa rahe hai.” Supporting the man, voices were raised, “Arre madam, kyun baat ka batangadh bana rahi hai? Aap khud he dekh rahi hai itni bheed hai, tabhi bhi.” And the woman sat down in complete silence and the man kept harassing her under ‘Bheed’.

This is not the first time, nor will it be the last time this harassment is taking place. The harassment is a daily routine that woman has to go through. The trauma it gives you when someone touches and grope you and blaming it on the crowd. The chill sends you to the spine when someone refuses to ‘behave’ in public transport. You feel like a caged bird, which is born to fly but can’t do anything about it, just to sit and watch the world around him. The same feeling would hit your mind, and you won’t able to do a thing about it.

To overcome the same situation, and to provide the female passenger with a sense of safety, Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation has come up with the new idea. The BMTC has divided the buses into two halves. The front half is reserved for female passengers, and the other half is for the general public.

Taking the cue from Delhi Metro, where the first coach is reserved especially for female passengers, DMC helped those women to protect the women facing harassment. BMTC has also gone this way and has come up with the idea dividing the passengers in half.

Following the same suite, Jaipur, too, has a similar idea as that of Delhi Metro. In Jaipur, there are pink buses which are specially reserved for female passengers. So that the female passenger can avoid those horrors, staring, groping and touching by those so called ‘Man’.

 Apart from this, the government should also take steps to make the women safer while travelling in public transport. Like the presence of police along with female constables in public transport so as to report such cases then and there. Installation of CCTV cameras which would be monitored 24×7 by people.

These are just simple steps to protect women in public transport