Pass Women’s Transport Bill

This week’s defining image was that of the CPM’s Brinda Karat and BJP’s Sushma Swaraj in a tight embrace. It is unthinkable that both politicos who are leading figures of the Right and Left could be photographed in such a bear-hug. The reason for the elation was the passing of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the upper house.

When this duo was posing for the cameras, thousands of women in our city were silently travelling like sardines in BEST buses and local trains, asking when a legislation would be passed for their safer and comfortable commute from home to workplace and vice versa.

It’s a scene no respectable man would like to see again. Urchins making lewd remarks, roadside Romeos hanging above the ladies’ compartment, some unemployed youth waiting at Wadala or Lower Parel station out to flick handbags of working women.
These are common hazards women face in our city. If you take a bus ride, it is a common sight to see how some miscreants take advantage of already hassled women passengers.

In London, when the proportion of women MPs went up, toilets meant for them also increased. If there are more women in the workforce, then why don’t we increase the number of buses and trains for them? If half the jobs in BMC’s pay-and-park lots will be reserved for women, then we must reserve one-third of the slots for women motorists. It is important to allocate more compartments to women in the nine-car rakes, rather than fighting to get one-third of the seats in parliament.

Let us not allow western countries, like the United States of America thrust an occasion like women’s day upon us. If they are so concerned about women’s liberation then let them have first a woman president and stop subjecting a contender like Sarah Palin to sexiest gibes.

During the presidential contest, Palin was in the news more for her wardrobe, spectacles and pencil heels. I would like to make a humble submission to all the rulers of our bustling megapolis — our women folk are suffering silently. They never came and told you that they need reservation.

They never even came to you, like some MPs in London, to demand an increase in toilet seats. This despite menfolk all around standing and urinating on the walls of every railway station from Marine Lines to Virar and Masjid Bunder to Karjat, while women are struggling to even get a foothold in the packed peak hour train. The supreme commander of the armed forces is a woman and so is the chief executive of India’s largest state - Uttar Pradesh.

By now, we all know where the power lies, even though prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh is wielding the baton. But the moot question is that, will these powerful women and the Women’s Reservation Bill make the life of common women comfortable. If not then, Brinda Karat and Sushma Swaraj can stage another spectacle.