Shreen Hamdani
SRINAGAR, June 16: Even months after directions were issued by the traffic police, Kashmir’s women say they can hardly take advantage of the separate seats reserved for them in public transport buses.
In almost all the buses in the city, men continue to occupy the eight seats behind the driver’s which have been set aside for women.
“When I board a bus, I find men sitting on the seats reserved for us,” says Jameela Meraj, a student who travels by public transport to college.
“I don’t have the courage to ask them to get up. I haven’t seen anyone do it either.”
The traffic police department has distributed stickers announcing separate seats for the females to drivers. But even tough norms don’t seem to work.
“We are very strict about the issue. We also impose a fine of Rs. 150 on the drivers in whose buses women don’t get the seats,” SP Traffic Srinagar, Haseeb-ur-Rehman says.
“Although we have got great support from locals, yet we need help from the ladies who should contact us in case they find that the rules aren’t being followed.”
“Then we can also impose a fine on the men who occupy ladies’ seats,” he says.
Tahir Ali, a twelfth class student, says he was among the males who were fined once by the police. But, for him a fine of Rs.200 is “just too much”.
“They have to fix a genuine chalaan (fine bill) for violators. Else they charge whatever they feel like,” he says.
But other men may just be reluctant to offer any seat all. “This is utterly biased, if they have to reserve these seats for women then let them keep separate seats for us too. It should be vice versa,” said a male commuter.
“Women can’t have everything. Separate seats for them and they can sit on other seats also. This is injustice,” he said.
However for the females it’s all about “moral values”.
“There was a time when the men would show their respect for us and offered us their seats, but that is all gone now,” says an elderly woman.
“Either this concept will fail outright or there is still time for us to accept that things are changing.” she says.
“What happened to the buses which were altogether meant for us, why were they taken off the roads?”
