Plight of women in public buses
THIS refers to Haniya Javed’s letter ‘Plight of women in public buses’ (March 15). I fully agree with the writer and feel their complaints are genuine and need to be looked into seriously and immediately.
I fully agree with the writer’s views about the state of public transport in Karachi, which does not cater to the needs of women commuters. Men, upon not finding vacant seats, occupy seats in the women’s compartment, which is already very small, almost less than one-third of the seating capacity of the entire bus.
Therefore, women are left with no choice but to stand while travelling. One often sees women alighting from buses well before their destinations owing to the awkward position they have been subjected to.
The state of our public transport system is an indicator of the poor governance prevalent in our country. The problems of women commuters have never been addressed by the government.
In addition, the police hardly ever book those who operate overloaded buses, nor do they take to task the men who occupy seats reserved for women.
However, the biggest shame is that the men in our country do not possess the decency to not enter the women’s compartment of public buses.
I believe that a serious thought should be given to getting rid of the separate sections reserved for women travellers in buses.
This will free up more space for women travellers and avoid the many hassles that they currently face.
It should be noted that there are no separate sections for women travellers in public buses in neighbouring India and in most other countries in the world.
SQN LDR (Rtd) S. AUSAF HUSAIN
Karachi
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