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Talk to any Indian woman about travel and transportation in India, and she will have a story to tell; of cat-calls, bottom pinches, lewd gestures and remarks, molestation -- everything that can make living or traveling by yourself feel like a risky enterprise. More so in urban centers, where more and more women are working and living alone.
In an earlier post here (Delhi Behaving Badly) about why the country's capital city was regarded as the most unsafe metropolis for women, we had discussed all possible reasons from power to policing to basic instincts. We have also discussed the challenges that foreigners -- especially women -- traveling to India may encounter. However, there may be more New Delhis cropping up across the country: education and urbanization is adding more women to the professional workforce, many of who need safe public transportation to get to their jobs.
But an increase in numbers has not led to the organic change that we expect to see in social attitudes. A testimony to that failure came in the form of this news: Indian Railway ministry (now headed by a woman) has introduced eight new commuter trains exclusively for women in the four largest city centers: New Delhi (north India), Mumbai (west India) , Chennai (south India) and Kolkata (east India). Growing up in Kolkata, I had heard of special public buses only for women that run at certain hours. Also, separation of sets of seats for men and women is common in Indian buses. Other cities -- including Chennai and Chandigarh -- have their own limited women's bus services. Mumbai commuter trains have ladies-only coaches and a couple ladies-only trains.
But this is for the first time that so many (its only a tiny fraction of the total number, though) commuter trains have been set aside for women across India. The more we educate ourselves and venture out of four walls of the house, the more we seem to need special protection, a.k.a. Ladies Specials. As this NYT reporter who boarded one of these trains puts it (follow the comments on this story for an interesting discussion):
India would seem to be a country where women have shattered the glass ceiling. The country’s most powerful politician, Sonia Gandhi, president of the Congress Party, is a woman. The country’s current president, a somewhat ceremonial position, is a woman. [...] India’s Constitution guarantees equal rights for women, while Indian law stipulates equal pay and punishment for sexual harassment.
But the reality is very different for the average working woman, many analysts say.
I will steer clear of discussing the practical merits of running entire trains for women (unless they too turn out to be as overcrowded as general trains) and the impact it will have on women who choose to travel in general trains.
I wonder though, why we still need this kind of segregation to be safe.
I have traveled in overcrowded buses and trains in New Delhi and New York. I did not particularly enjoy the fight for foot-space, the constant jostling, or the stepping on sore toes and fragile tempers, but I don't complain -- that's part of work life and many men are sweating it out just as much.
But what bothered me in India was that crowd created a convenient excuse for some men to feel you up, touch you, pinch your bottom, tweak your breasts or pass slimy comments. Sometimes, it wasn't even that crowded. Complain, and pat comes the answer: "It's so crowded madam." A high-school teacher once chidingly joked about such men who, for some inexplicable reason, seem unable to keep their balance in public transportation: she called them "the swaying palm trees" ready to land on you or brush against you at the slightest provocation.
Now, there has been the occasional complaint that some women turn the slightest pushing and shoving into a sexual harassment issue. Even if we cut out the cases where women have been too touchy, is it that hard to distinguish between a neutral nudge and a bottom squeeze? Does "excuse me" sound anything like "nice tits"? Not in any of the languages I speak.
Agelessbonding was traveling with her daughter-in-law on an overnight train when they were jolted awake by a middle-aged woman screaming: some boy had decided to bend over her and grab her breasts, probably assuming that she, like other commuters, was fast asleep. The boy escaped. The coach guard was nowhere to
