Women in Chittagong are struggling to travel on public transport due to the limited number of female reserved seats on vehicles and the non-cooperation of male co-passengers.
On a recent visit to the port city our correspondent found that the number of women-only seats in public vehicles is not enough for the rising number of female commuters attempting to use them.
Only nine out of 52 seats are provided to female passengers, whereas three to four women can travel on a human hauler which has 10 to 12 seats.
Tahmina Mahmud, an HSC first-year student of Government Women College in Chittagong city’s Nasirabad area, must travel to college from her residence at Halisahar on a human hauler, and then on a bus.
She said after waiting for a long time she often could not get a seat reserved for women on the bus.
“The seats are often found occupied by male commuters,” she said.
“I have to face one more hurdle during my bus journey,” she added, “Whenever a bus stops, the male commuters rush to the door, throwing aside female or elderly passengers.”
Tania Akhter, a garment worker, said: “When I luckily even manage to get on a bus, I have to stand among the male passengers, which is embarrassing for me.”
Nasima Akhter, an engineer at a private company in the port city, has to board on a bus to go to her workplace in GEC intersection from her residence at Baluchara.
“Sometimes, I have to wait for almost an hour to board a bus, “she said.
Taspia Chowdhury, who regularly takes a bus to go to her coaching centre in Sheikh Mujib Road area, said sometimes male passengers heavily come down on female passengers when women ask them to vacate their seats.
Fatem Tuz Zohora, a Chittagong University student, said many women have to bargain with the bus helpers to board during busy hours.
Saleha Begum, a garment worker in Chittagong Export Processing Zone, said she often starts walking to her workplace as boarding a bus can take such a long time.
The female commuters urged the government to take steps to increase the number of reserved seats for women in public transport, and to arrange separate buses for female commuters.
“Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) launched special services for women in 2005 and 2009, but these were stopped due to some unavoidable reason,” said Joysen Barua, assistant engineer (mechanical) of CCC. He did not, however, explain the reasons.
CCC Superintendent Engineer (mechanical) MA Malek, said the city corporation was not currently thinking of restarting the women-only buses.
Abul Kalam Azad, president of Chittagong Bus, Minibus and Human Hauler Owners Association, said: “The seats reserved for women in public transport often remain vacant. Thus, introducing separate public transport for women may not be feasible.”
“However, we will discuss with our members about increasing the number of reserved seats for women,” he added.