Public transport: A nightmare for women commuters

With obnoxious comments from passersby to simply getting place in vans, travelling is a great challenge for women.

Travelling on public transport has become a nightmare for women in the twin cities. As they leave their houses, various forms of harassments start travelling with them till the end of their journey.

With obnoxious comments from passersby to simply getting place in vans, travelling has become a great challenge for them.

Women, and especially young girls, are harassed on bus stops. The three-day a week gas outage forces them to spend extended time at stops, which only add to their miseries. After hours of teasing, if they succeeded in getting a seat on the overloaded vans, the next stage of harassment begins.

The two front seats on public transport vehicles are reserved for female commuters, but just the two seats are not enough for hundreds of working women, students and others who regularly use public transport. In addition, most public buses and vans are either heavily loaded or conductors don’t reserve the two front seats for women.

After public vans, the only option left for female commuters is taxicabs. However cab fare can rule out the option for many.

Moreover, according to Taxi Union Association President Malik Aftab, unregistered taxis are one of the biggest security threats to commuters. He estimated that there are around 2,000 unregistered cabs in the capital.

“We request citizens to kindly check for a yellow sticker with the taxi association logo pasted on the front mirror of the cab before sitting inside,” he stressed.

Aftab estimated that between 3,000 to 4,000 women use public transport and cabs in the twin cities every day.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2012.