Shawdesh Desk:

Asmaul Husna was desperately gesturing moving buses to stop around 9:15am at Kakrail in the capital on Thursday. When a bus was arriving, people were competing with each other to get on it, leaving her frustrated.

Observing her continuous efforts to get on a bus, this correspondent approached her and asked about her inconvenience, she said she does a private job in Gulshan-2 where she had to reach by 10:00am.

Husna, a resident of Segunbagicha in the capital, said, “During office time every day, I have to go through similar experience. Drivers of running buses hardly reduce speed while taking passengers and leaving them. In such situation though some men can get on buses, it becomes almost impossible for women.”

“Therefore, either I become successful in getting on a bus fighting with men or miss the regular office schedule,” the middle-aged woman added.

She said that even after getting on the bus she often find that the reserved seats for women and physically challenged persons are grabbed by men.

She sometimes hires CNG or calls ride sharing service to attend office on time but it at the end of the month it creates pressure on her wallet.

Like Husna, hundreds of thousands of women who are commuting in the capital for different purposes such as attending job, schools, colleges and hospitals have to face daily for the unfriendly public transport services.

While sharing their experiences in public transport, most of the women said that moving buses pick and drop passengers on roads and drivers have a tendency of not picking women in rush hours.

Most of the working women  said they need to complete their household work before stepping outside they hardly reached bus stoppages prior to the rush hour and, therefore they are sufferings multiply.

The pregnant women and women with kids are the worst victims of the system in the public transport. Many women have to be victims of sexual harassment during travel in public transport by staff or co-passengers, they said.

A recently-conducted study by Aanchal Foundation on 1,014 women said that at least 45.27 young women become victim of sexual harassment in public transport and of them 84.27 per cent incident  occurred in public buses or its station.

It also said 4.58 per cent women face the harassment in rail and 1.53 per cent in ride sharing.

On December 19, 2021, an 18-year-old girl was allegedly raped by three young men in a moving bus on Dhaka-Chattogram Highway while going to Rupganj in Narayanganj from Jatrabari in the capital.