Will you step into my parlour? Said the spider to the fly

(I wrote this a couple of weeks back. Decided to post it today.)

I have been deeply reliant on public transport, particularly mass transit systems as opposed to autos and taxis, since the time I started moving around on my own. I boarded my first DTC as an eighteen year old student, knees quaking, trying not to remember all the terrible stories I’d heard for years from women around me. I continued to be nervous for months, but eventually I grew to love the idea and experience and developed a deep fascination for public transport in general. When in Delhi, although not just in Delhi, one cannot talk about ‘women’ and ‘public transport’ in the same breath without evoking strong reactions. The recent DMRC move to reserve a coach on trains for ladies and children under twelve was one such strong reaction, which has in turn evoked further reaction. I, on my part, am extremely disappointed by this move.

Let me qualify my grievances with this policy decision by stating quite clearly that I am not against the idea of reservations and that I feel the concept of merit, as is flaunted by those who oppose it, is quite flawed. My opposition to the pink coach is because I feel it misses the point of safety on public transport altogether.

An all women's coach is nothing but a segregation of population based on gender and imposing a fine on a transgressing male makes that paternalistic segregation even tighter. In addition, it is as good, or as bad, as telling the female train passenger that they can only expect to be safe in that artificially created space. Interestingly, this segregation has been accompanied by a language of female empowerment, encouraging women to celebrate it, defend it and protect it from infiltration. The treatment of the coach has been such that the issue has subtly shifted from being about the right of women to safely use public transport, to that of the right of women to an all women’s coach.       

 This response to the challenge of ensuring safety on public transport has not only been a conservative one, it has been attempted on a mode of transport that is arguably ‘safer’ and easier to police than other available modes of public transport. Thus by choosing to make the metro the subject and site of ‘corrective’ policy, the DMRC and the Delhi government are already choosing the short term over long term, and the short cut to a real solution with teeth. 

I am still a little unclear as to the official reason behind this move. Newspapers reported that the Delhi Government made this recommendation based on a survey that revealed fifty percent of Delhi’s women felt unsafe while using public transport. A press release on the DMRC website states that "DMRC reserved a separate coach for ladies from 2nd October 2010 In view of the increasing number of lady passengers travelling on the Metro. The reserved ladies’ coach will be the first coach next to the driver’s cab in every train and children up to 12 years accompanied by lady passengers will also be allowed to travel in the reserved coach." So which is it? Safety of women or too many women (wouldn’t the latter contradict the former?) ?  

And while the powers-that-be deliberated on this reserved coach, what, pray, were their thoughts on the old and on persons with disabilities? They continue to choose to give more policy space to both a woman's biology and gender by ensuring that women have a separate reservation, whereas the old and persons with disabilities have to share their 'quota'. This is either an (erroneous) comment on the size of this particular population, or the powers-that-be are less interested in enabling the old and persons with disabilities to travel-who, frankly, need a seat more than ‘women’.  It also begs the question: when will the Delhi Government do a survey to see exactly how many disabled persons and geriatrics in Delhi are forced to stay away from public transport?

In a conversation with a male colleague on this topic, I happened to mention my personal experience as a daily commuter on the metro, where I have never felt uncomfortable because of my gender. But that's because you look like a boy, he said, referring to my ultra-short hair as if ten minutes with a pair of scissors is all it takes to ensure a life-time guarantee of no sexual harassment (wouldn't that be nice).  

Despite my short hair and presumed immunity to sexual harassment on the Delhi Metro, I'm not suggesting that all women must share my experience; however, simply removing women from the space they feel threatened in does not make that space any safer. Who knows, it might even lead to a situation in the future where the public will shrug even more nonchalantly  in the face of sexual harassment in other coaches and say, ‘you should have travelled in the women’s coach’. How can any form of ghettoisation be empowering in the long run?

No move for change is obliged to be single-step and unidimensional. The women’s coach will hopefully be a temporary measure. A multi-pronged strategy can accommodate a temporary segregation-not, most definitely, an intelligent, long term one.  For a start, it can be coupled with measures to control the number of people who choose to squeeze themselves into trains-Mumbai managed to do it on their bus system, surely we can give it a good try?