Insufficient reserved seats in public transport create problems for women
Insufficient reserved seats at public transport are creating serious problems for women commuters who wait for hours at bus stops to reach their destination especially during days of Compress Natural Gas (CNG) load shedding.
Majority of the working women of twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad use public transport to reach their offices as it is not affordable for them to hire a cab on daily basis in their meagre economic resources which force them to come out from homes and join work force.
However, according to public transport regulations only two reserved seats for women in public vans left them with no option than to wait for hours at bus stops particularly in morning and evening time when everyone was in hurry.
Shahida Sukhera, an advocate said, two front seats were reserved in public vans more than three decades back when the ratio of women coming out of their houses was very low but now a large number of women travel daily but the concerned authorities never paid heed to their grievances.
She said, “A large number of women are rendering services in almost every walk of life but unfortunately the reserve seats were not revised.”
Aisha Khan opined, “Now our nation is enjoying the affects of women empowerment and women are producing much better results as compare to their male colleagues but no one is ready to give them facilities according to their needs.”
Women are in constant tension of reaching late at office or academic institutions which may result in loosing job or education opportunities, she said adding, this situation is getting worse day by day and one of the major symptom is it increased psychological pressures and frustration among them.
Seemab Akhtar, an employees of a cellular phone company said there are also a brunt of problems faced by the women travelling through local transport as they have to face derogating remarks by conductor and other people.
Another commuter Sofia said, “Women feel insecure and uncomfortable sitting in this way and therefore they usually pay double fare for sitting alone in front.”
Nadia Malik, a government employee said that women in overloaded public vans are particularly vulnerable because everyone seems to want to pounce upon them like his legitimate prey. She suggested that idea of plying separate buses at specific routes including secretariat, blue area should also facilitate women where majority of women employees travel daily to discharge their professional duties
