Now, women commuters in the city are travelling comfortably in the buses with a sense of security as men are not occupying their seats. The new initiative of the APSRTC in introducing partial partitions in the city services has gained tremendous response from the women commuters and mixed response from males.
According to the new safety initiative, women’s seats will be separated from men’s by an aluminium mesh. Though Vijayawada has not witnessed major cases of women harassment in the city buses, issues like males occupying the seats reserved for women and nuisance by boozers are noticed.
In all, the Vijayawada region of the APSRTC operates 355 city bus services to various destinations. Of them, 152 buses were fixed with partial aluminium partitions in the middle, earmarking the front part of the bus exclusively for women.
A B.tech graduate Sarika Moparthi heaved a sigh of relief after boarding an RTC bus at the PNBS terminal here on Saturday. “Earlier, we did not know what to do when men harassed us in buses. The mesh partition will be of great help,” she said and lauded the efforts of RTC officials for introducing safety measures in the buses.
The mesh partition will put an end to quarrels picked by drunkards and other passengers. “Every day we come across nuisance and arguments with men entering the space allotted for women in buses. And when we defend women, they keep swearing at us till the time they get down. This separation will avert all those problems,” said K Nagalakshmi, a bus conductor.
Meanwhile, a male commuter Ch Bala Koteswara Rao opined, “It’s good to see such initiatives. But when the bus gets overcrowded will the women passengers not come to the other part of the bus? Officials had better focus on implementing a rule that a certain number of passengers can only board the bus.”
“Be it the younger lot, especially students, or the older women, they seemed to like it and were unanimous in expressing their appreciation at the new initiative implemented for their safety in the buses. “The special features cost around Rs 20,000 per bus. The special section for women passengers covers 40 per cent of the seats,” Vijayawada regional manager (RM) PV Rama Rao told Express. Asked if the partition would be introduced in buses plying across the district, he said a decision would be taken after considering the rush experienced there.
Divided they stand
152 buses out of 355 RTC city buses have partitions installed
2 sections are separated with an aluminium mesh.
40pc seats provided for women’s section in the front part of the vehicle.
A20,000 cost of modifying each bus.
News : The New Indian Express
