Today, women’s Safety in Public Transport is a highly crucial issue globally and most importantly in parts of Global South including Indo-Pak subcontinent. It is highly imperative to understand that travel needs of men and women are to a certain extent poles apart. In a developing country like ours, many women are forced to remain at home owing to lack of safe transportation option among a plethora of other socio-economic and most of the times cultural issues. According to World Bank’s data (based on a collection of development indicators) as of 2016, women constitute 48.63% of the entire Pakistani populace and this certain percentage of individuals which comprise of our mothers , daughters and sisters are more likely to travel shorter distances and to stop more frequently than men during the journey they undertake. After walking, women often take a bus, rickshaw or a taxi (from popular online companies like Uber and Careem) but bus to a greater extent remains the most common mode of transport. Such trend is in contrast to men for whom, after walking, riding a bike to work is the most common mode of transport. This indeed demonstrates and rather acts as a grim reminder of both the lower rates of asset ownership among women and lack of finances for them to pay for their commute. But it could also exhibit the fact that women simply travel much shorter distances to work.
In shorter commutes, women are more likely to be the ones walking, while men are more likely to be riding the bikes or driving the cars. When commutes are long, however, women are more likely to be the ones taking the bus. Whether it is rickshaws, chingchis or taxis on public streets or public buses, women overwhelmingly resort to the usage of public transportation. Unfortunately women still continue to feel uncomfortable in different mediums of Lahore’s existing system of public transport largely owing to a huge societal menace named “Harassment” which acts like a gigantic stumbling block on the way to a greater gender equality and equity in Pakistan’s highly patriarchal and male-oriented society. According to Cambridge English Dictionary, Harassment is a “Behaviour that annoys or upsets someone”. While elaborating and expanding on this definition, Canada’s reputable CHRC (Canadian Human Rights Commission) mentions the instances and criteria of an act of “Harassment” as according to it such act takes place when (a) Someone makes unwelcome remarks or jokes about your race, religion, sex, age, disability or any other of the grounds of discrimination. (b) Someone threatens or intimidates you because of your race, religion, sex, age, disability or any other of the grounds of discrimination and (c) When someone makes unwelcome physical contact with you, such as touching, patting, or pinching.
Section 509 of Pakistan Penal Code 1860, talked about “insulting the modesty” of a woman but there was no clear definition of “modesty”. Moreover, there was no law to prohibit harassment at workplace.
Last year (2010), Government of Pakistan not only enacted a special law for preventing sexual harassment at workplace but also amended section 509 of Pakistan Penal Code. Now it clearly defines harassment and includes harassment at workplace as well. It has also raised the maximum punishment for perpetrator from one to three years. Now under section 509 of Pakistan Penal Code, insulting the modesty of women or sexually harassing them, is a crime. The perpetrator of this crime may be punished with imprisonment, which may extend to 3 years or fine up to PKR 500,000 (5 lakh) or with both. However, this crime is still bailable and compoundable.
As a part of my quantitative research titled “Harassment of women in public transport” for a political science course’s presentation as part of my minor in Political Science during my ongoing undergraduate degree of BS Economics, I had the pleasure of getting survey questionnaires (regarding the female experiences in public transport of Lahore) filled by 19 different women of different ages and different educational and to a certain extent ethnic backgrounds. They gave their responses to some open-ended questions of questionnaire too. When asked whether they think such instances of harassment on public transport should be immediately reported to the nearest police station or not, then 89% of the participants said “ Yes” whereas 11% of the participants said “No”. Similarly when it was asked in the questionnaire that whether the participants think that victims of such acts of harassment are supported by their family in the aftermath or not, they responded with 63% saying a “Yes” and 37% saying a “No”.
When the 19 women were questioned on which vehicle they think such incidents occur most, then 14 said “Bus/Wagon” and only 3 said that the vehicle most afflicted with the menace of harassment is a “Taxi” whereas the rest of the participants gave their thoughts on “Chingchi” and “Rickshaw”. The same people were then asked that who they think is the person highly likely to harass a woman in a “Bus/Wagon” and 74% of them put the onus on a “fellow male passenger” whereas 16% blamed the “driver of vehicle” and the remaining blamed the “conductor present inside the vehicle”.
At the end of the questionnaire, participants had a few open-ended questions to answer to where they were given the opportunity to write their responses instead of resorting to simply ticking either a “Yes” or “No”. The first question asked their opinion on the women who are riding bikes on roads in Pakistan. Almost the entire group of participants responded positively to the aforementioned question by giving comments such as these “They should keep doing it. They are safe.” (Participant 1). “It is a positive behavior” (Participant 2) and “They are empowered women” (Participant 3).
Participants also voiced their reservations against the inadequacy of governmental policies on the acts of Harassment in public spaces and on public transport, they voiced such grave concerns by giving comments like these “They aren’t sufficient to prevent a rise in such acts”.
Acts of harassment in public transport in Lahore are an area of grave concern for all of us as responsible citizens and we shall strive towards eradicating this societal menace as much as we can.
“The article was co-authored by Dr. Zamurrad Awan ( Assistant professor Political Science department FCCU). Sarmad Iqbal did his research for the article under the guidance of Dr. Zamurrad Awan”.