Friday, March 8, 2013

Silly reservations in buses

Letter Published in Gomantak Times, 8th March 2013 The decision of the Goa Government to increase reserved seats for women in buses is absolutely ridiculous and an injustice. With Goa's public transport in a total mess such appeasements without application of mind only create further stress for the traveler. Has the Director of Transport cared to travel in a public bus to check out how the existing reservation of seats actually works? What does this absurd increase in reserved seats for women actually translate in a public transport starved State like Goa? Has the Government reflected on the logical implications of this silly policy? Reservation of seats for women in the strict sense means that no man can sit on that seat even if there is no woman in the bus. What happens when in a 20-seater shuttle service, tickets get issued irrespective of the seating quota for men and women in a bus? If at all the tickets get issued as per quota, would it mean the reserved seats will be unoccupied even if there are no women passengers during the journey. Secondly, there is no particular area in the bus designated for such reserved seats. They are scattered all over the place, sometimes the markings are not even legible. So how is the woman safe when the other seats around the reserved seat are for general category? Thirdly, what happens when women leave the reserved seats empty and occupy window seats in the general category whereby a man is then forced to seat next to the woman if it is a double seat? How is the woman safe in such a situation? With a fanatic woman mindset taking over society, why should a man be put at risk of being accused of molestation by compelling him to sit next to a woman in a bus? It is sad that Goan society has degenerated from being a progressive society to a situation of reservation for women in public transport. What next? -Soter

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