This has reference to the letter titled ‘Safety of ladies travelling in buses’ (Herald, Sept 2).
Though I do not rule out misbehaviour with female passengers by some male passengers who must definitely be punished for their misdeeds, I disagree with some things suggested in the letter.
Solution to overcrowding during peak hours in buses is adding more buses and not separate ‘lady-only’ buses. Imagine a male waiting for a bus to go to work and a bus having space passes by and he can’t get on it just because he is not a female. When the conductor moves from one end of the bus to the other end to collect fares along the aisle, everybody feels very uncomfortable, not only ladies. In fact, why only the conductor?
Everybody standing along the aisle in a crowded bus feels uncomfortable when a way has to be made for the conductor or a passenger. The conductor is the one feeling most uncomfortable during peak hours, as he has the challenging job to move back and forth taking care not to step on someone’s foot, to collect fares, convince people to go further back, move in front of the bus before reaching the next stop to open the door, trying to remember faces of people to whom to he has to return change and how much before they get down, etc. If some over-suspicious ladies suspect conductors of having any bad intention then it’s not the fault of the conductor. It is their negative mentality.
A video wherein a girl slaps a boy when he accidently bumps into her when the bus halts and then the same girl accidently bumps into him when the bus starts to accelerate again and so the boy slaps her back and she realises her mistake has also gone viral too.
In the letter, he says that it should be made mandatory for men (except senior citizens and differently-abled individuals) to offer their seat to a standing lady commuter. This is outrageous! First of all even the reservation of 4 seats for ladies which has been implemented is highly illogical. Both women and men have the same number of legs to stand. When women are demanding equality then how come they are not equal to men when it comes to standing in buses? Reservation, offering a seat must be based on some logic and reasoning, such as old age, disability, someone who’s pregnant, sick, or mother carrying an infant, etc and not simply on the basis of gender.
