Female commuters' woes intensify in Ctg city

Amidst the rush of male passengers at the door, women find it hard to board a public bus at Badamtoli intersection in Agrabad of the port city. The photo was taken recently.Photo: STAR

Ishrat Parvin, service holder of a private organisation in Chittagong, boards a bus everyday from Bahaddarhat to go to her office in Agrabad.
While waiting for a bus at Agrabad recently, she said, “I have been trying for almost an hour just to board a bus.
When ever a bus stops, the male commuters rush in through the door, throwing aside any females or elderly that comes their way,” she said.
At this hour, if a female does manage to get on a bus, she often has to stand among the male passengers and face harassment since the seats reserved for women in the bus is very limited, she added.
An ambitious female has to face many hurdles and non-support from societal factors, but the biggest hurdle of all is the one she has to face as a commuter, said Parvin, summing up the woes of female commuters.
The port city has witnessed a massive increase in the volume of working women and female students over the time, yet it is doing very less to ensure their smooth commuting.
Compared to the increasing number of female commuters, the number of seats reserved for them in public buses is highly adequate.
This situation is more visible during office hours or evening times, when getting on a bus is as hard as standing inside one.
Shumi, who regularly takes a bus to go to her coaching center on OR Nizam road, said, “The male passengers often behave roughly with the females in the public transports.”
Some of the males even occupy the reserved seats and bawl at the bus driver or helper if they take on female passengers, said the student.
Sharmina Khanom, another student of Chittagong Government City College, said, “I have no problem standing inside the bus, but harassment by the male passengers makes it rather difficult.”
During peak hours, when the buses are jam-packed, the situation gets even worse, she added.
Also, the females have to bargain with the bus helpers just to board a bus during busy hours.
Jannatul Ferdous, a garments factory worker at Dewanhat, said boarding a bus takes so long that she often walks to her workplace. “Walking long distance is very tiring but it is not possible for low income people like me to hire a rickshaw or CNG run auto.”
The female commuters urged the government to take steps to increase the number of reserved seats for women in public transports and to create separate buses for females.
School teacher Zakir Ahmed said, “In recent times, the number of women working or taking education has immensely increased. That's why, separate transport should be introduced for their commuting immediately.”
“Though we have launched special bus services especially for women in 2005 and 2009, but due to some definite reasons we had to discontinue it,” said Joysen Barua, assistant engineer (mechanical) of Chittagong City Corporation (CCC).
However, he did not mention or clarify the reasons.
CCC Superintendent Engineer (mechanical) M A Malek also said, “CCC is not thinking of resuming bus service only for women right now.”
Abul Kalam Azad, president of Chittagong Bus, Minibus and Human Hauler Owners Association, said, “The seat s reserved for women in public transports often remain vacant. Thus, introducing separate public transport for women may not be feasible.”
“However, we will discuss with our members about increasing the number of reserved seat for women at our next meeting,” he added.