Topics Page NO.

1. Introduction 2
2. Background 3
3. Areas of research 5
4. Hypothesis 7
5. Methodology 8
6. Primary data presentation and analysis 9
7. Summary of findings 18
8. Secondary data analysis 20
9. Limitations 23
10. Recommendations 24
11. Conclusion 25
12. References 27
13. Appendix 28

About 7 years ago, I remember that my English teacher came to the classroom with a very sad face. She was very upset and was sweating. She was so upset that she could not take the class properly and left the classroom early. Later on when she was asked by one of our senior students, she revealed the reason for which she was so upset. While travelling in the public bus that she uses everyday to come to school, she was literally sexually harassed. She was sitting on the front row of the crowded bus when suddenly two men came in front of her and was somehow touching her chest with their elbows. In the rush, they were acting as if it was not intentional but our teacher understood that it was purely planned by the two. As the bus was going, our teacher tried to complain but she felt silent and nervous and did not react as she was completely numb. Through out the route, the two men explored that area of her body. When our teacher got down from the bus, she realized what exactly had happened. It was later found that she also cried in the school that day while describing the awful experience with her colleagues. She also swore that she will never travel on a public bus again in her entire life.

Just like this, many women face such kinds of problems everyday while travelling on public transportation modes. After experiencing it, some react and take necessary actions such as changing the mode of transport or even stopping using public transport while others take it for granted especially when they have no other option but to use public transport for economic constraints.

Bangladesh is a developing country with a population of about 14.5 million and it is increasing day by day. Facing a problem of high population, our country also faces several problems of political instability and conflicts. News of such problems is always present in our daily newspapers every morning. Along with such news we are also exposed to news of sexual harassments that women of our society face every day. Recently, I read in a daily newspaper that a young girl 2 years of age was raped by a man! It was shocking news for me and I was surprised that how cruel men can be.

The main focus of my research is the problems especially with respect to sexual harassments that women face in public transportation modes today. Most of the women in the middle class segment of the community use public transport to reach their destinations every day. Many of them include working women doing part time or full time jobs. They use busses, rickshaws, tempos or CNG auto rickshaws to go to different places they need to go. The following will discuss various transportation modes and their degree of being safe for women.

Bus:
Bus could be refereed to as the worst transportation mode where women are highly subject to sexual harassment problems. Crowded bus seems like heaven for some men where they get a chance to rub their bodies against the bodies of women. They often pass on comments at women while the men are in a group or individual men can act that they have accidently touched a women’s body which was purely intentional.

Tempo:

The tempo is a safer mode of transportation than the bus where the level of crowd and rush is a lesser than that of the bus. But in a tempo, women are more vulnerable to indecent looks being given at them.

Rickshaws:

The rickshaw is also a safe mode of transportation where women can travel alone avoiding the rush and thereby physical contact with men is avoided.

CNG auto rickshaw:
The CNG auto rickshaw is considered to be the safest mode of transportation as the women are able to travel alone and within a section of the vehicle where they can not be seen properly. It is a comfortable mode of transport and as today most of the CNG auto rickshaws are bordered on the sides with grill doors, women can avoid physical contact with men as well as avoid being seen by men who are likely to look indecently at the latter.

The main focus of this study is to find out the problems faced by women in public transport and which age groups among the women experience the problems as mentioned above:
Types of problems faced:
The research will focus on the types of problems that women face while travelling in public transportation modes and their degree with respect to the type of transport used.

Age group 20- 25:
Most of the individuals in these age groups are students and very few are job holders especially part time. They generally are travelling in public transports for going to their universities. Women in this age group are mostly unmarried except few exceptions.

Age group 25- 35:
Women ranging from 25 to 35 years of age are generally married and are involved in part time or full time jobs in most cases. They generally use public transportation to go to their workplaces. They generally use buses to travel to their workplaces where they are most vulnerable to problems such as teasing or other forms of sexual harassment.

Age group 35- 45:
Women in this age group are generally housewives and stop working outside although there are women who still work at that age. Those who are housewives travel by bus, CNG auto rickshaws or rickshaws to go to different places. On the other hand, those who are job holders, they use these transportation modes to reach their workplaces.

After conducting my research, I found out that my assumption was true. Almost all of them surveyed agreed that they often face or experience sexual harassment, indecent looks, teasing, dirty comments and other problems while using public transportation. As a result, few have taken the problem for granted and did not take any forms of corrective measures while others have taken corrective actions against the problems. Some had changed the way they dress while others have started to use alternative mode of transportation such as CNG auto rickshaws. Most of them assume that CNG auto rickshaws are safer mode of transportation compared to busses and tempos.

To complete the research I required a lot of data and I had to analysis them as well. I collected these data from two sources. These are –

Primary research :

For my primary research I prepared a structured questionnaire. I distributed these questionnaires among 20 people. Among these 20, most of them were jobholders. I distributed the questionnaire among people having different professions like teachers, students of public & private universities, part time job holders and housewives.

Secondary research :

For my secondary research I mainly used internet. I downloaded articles related to this subject matter. I also used newspaper articles for the research.

I conducted a survey among forty people for the purpose of the research. I have showed my findings of the survey through graphs and interpretations. The graphs and explanations are given as follows:
[pic]

INTERPRETATION:
The above bar graph shows us the percentage of the three age groups that have been interviewed. As the graph reveals, about 30 % of the total number interviewed are from age 20 to 25 and 58% from age 25 to 35. The remaining 11 % consist of those interviewed aging 35 to 45 years of age.

[pic]

INTERPRETATION:
The above graph illustrates the percentages of single and married women interviewed. The horizontal axis shows the two categories, single and married women and the vertical axis shows the percentages of each category respectively. About 18% of the women interviewed were single while the remaining 82% were married. Most of the single women in my sample survey were university students while the married women in my sample survey are either housewives or part time or full time jobholders.

[pic]

INTERPRETATION:
The above bar graph shows us the types of jobs that women interviewed are involved in. The horizontal axis shows full time and part time job categories and the corresponding vertical bar shows the percentages of the two categories. Most of the interviewed women are part time job holders approximating about 66% whereas only 34% are full time jobholders. The reason behind this difference is that most women give their family and children more importance than her career which makes them do part time jobs only which allows them to remain flexible. This allows them to manage her office as well as her family and children. This is generally common in the school teaching profession among women.

[pic]

INTERPRETATION:
The above graph illustrates the outcome of my question regarding whether the women interviewed use public transport everyday or not. About 92 % said YES and the remaining said NO. This is because most of the middle class women cannot afford their own private modes of transport because of lack of financial flexibility. Thereby they are bound to use public transport as a mode of travelling to reach their destinations. The other segment that does not use public transport every day are either housewives who do not need to go out of their houses everyday or those women who can afford their own private cars or other modes of transport.

[pic]

INTERPRETATION:
In the above bar graph, the horizontal axis shows the two answers to the question of whether the women face problems caused by the presence of the opposite sex in the public vehicles. 97% of the women interviewed said that they do face problems whereas only 3 % said that they face no problems at all. This is very crucial and supports the fact that women do face problems created by the opposite sex in the public transportation modes.

INTERPRETATION:
The above graph discusses the various forms of problems that women face in public transportation. The horizontal axis shows the types of problems like indecent looks given by the opposite sex, unwanted and intentional physical contact made by the opposite sex and indecent comments being passed at women by the opposite sex. The vertical axis shows the percentages. Results showed that 48% of the women interviewed experienced indecent and dirty looks being given at them while 32% experiences unwanted physical contact being made. Only about 20% of the women interviewed complained that they experienced indecent comments being passed at them in the public transportation.

[pic]

INTERPRETATION:
The above graph indicates whether the individual women have taken the problem for granted or not. The horizontal axis shows the two possible answers and the corresponding vertical axis shows the percentages of women answering each of the possible answers. About 97 % agreed to the fact that they have not taken the problem that is persisting in public transportation for granted. The other group of women approximately 2.5 % says that they have taken the problem for granted. The main reason could be that they have no other choices to travel except public transportation. So they are bound to ride public transportation despite experiencing several problems.

[pic]

INTERPRETATION:
The above graph illustrates the percentages of women reacting to the problem in three different ways. The horizontal axis shows the three types of corrective measures like changing the mode of transport currently being used, changing the way the women dress up and the final stoppage of usage of public transport. As the graph says most of the women reacted to this problem by changing the way they dress up while traveling in public transports. 12% of the women interviewed changed their mode of transport and 10% of the women stopped using public transport.

[pic]

INTERPRETATION:
The above graph illustrates which transportation mode is perceived as the safest by women. The horizontal axis represents the four modes of transport and the vertical axis represents the percentages of each mode respectively. About 77% of the women perceive CNG auto rickshaws as being the safest mode of transport in respect to sexual harassment. Then they feel the rickshaw to be safer and about 21% of the women interviewed agreed to this fact. 1 % of the women interviewed felt the bus to be safer compared to any other vehicles and almost 0 % of the women felt the tempo to be safer. The above outcomes represented in graphical form clearly show which public transportation modes are more vulnerable and which modes of transport are safer.

The overall results of the primary research are listed below.
Women from age group 25 years to 35 years are more vulnerable to sexual harassment and other problems alike in public transportation services.

Women face many problems while travelling in public transportation. The most common problems are indecent looks being given by the opposite sex and unwanted physical contacts intentionally made by the opposite sex in the public transports. Moreover women also face teasing and dirty comments being passed at them.

Women generally from the middle class segment of the community use public transportation services every day. Thus, without public transport services, women are not able to travel to their places of destination. Thus, they are in a sense bound to travel by bus or tempos for instance and tolerate the problems often without even complaining or protesting. Thus they take the problems for granted.

Many women who do not take the problems for granted had already taken some corrective measures. Some have changed the ways they dress up so that their level of attractiveness is reduced, some have changed the mode of transport being used, and for instance shifting from using busses to using CNG auto rickshaws and others have stopped using public transport services completely.

Many women I have interviewed assume the CNG auto rickshaw to be the safest mode of transport. Then they assume rickshaws to be safer and busses and tempos are considered to be the least safe modes of public transportation services.

Many articles are found in the web and the newspapers. I used some of such articles as secondary data analysis and analyzed them in context of my research topic. The following discusses some of the articles.

Sexual harassments in Bangladesh mainly occur between superiors and their subordinates in the workplace. The second highest rate of sexual harassments occurs in the public transportation services especially the busses.

In a general survey undertaken by a group of women who are the members of “women’s rights association of Bangladesh” reported that about 67% of the women surveyed using public transportation services experienced sexual harassments almost everyday or at some point in their lives.

Sexual harassments are not limited to only adult women. Young school girls are also subject to sexual harassments of several kinds in public transportation specifically the busses.

Sexual harassments in public transportation are not only common in Bangladesh but all over the world. In the USA for instance a survey revealed that women are subject to sexual harassments in subways, roads and mostly in the public bus services. In the busses, women feel trapped with the harassers and the former could do nothing because she had to reach her work place by time.

The bus is the most vulnerable to sexual harassments as a mode of transportation. While travelling in a bus, women often experience touching, grabbing, groping, and rubbing against their bodies by men. Often men put hands down on women’s dresses in a bus acting as if the incident was an accidental brush and purely unintentional which is actually not.

The reasons for which sexual harassments are common in Bangladesh are as follows:
Some feel that it is the direct consequence of a puritanical and sexually repressive society, especially one in which women traditionally have no voice and nothing resembles equal rights.
Some in society posses an extremely restricted mentality and also tend to be overly pedantic on sexuality and thus cannot mix with women freely and also don't consider others' free mixing proper. This type of mentality also provokes sexual harassments sometimes. Some boys argue that at times girls dress in a provocative manner that they themselves call male's attention.
People are not that educated (for that matter civilized) which is also a reason for the rate of sexual harassments in the public transportation.
Some also feel that if children are not nurtured on the lines of religion and have an unchecked exposure to so called modern fashion, they are bound to lose way of sobriety and moral principles. Thus they don't understand that teasing women is an offence.
Lack of policemen's awareness is also a reason for such problems in public transportation as they are not conscious about this matter.
The problem also lies with the conservative set up of the society. Education, family rearing and way of living are some of the factors that influence everybody's mind. It is shown that if a girl is provocatively fashionable boys bend down to such activities often also out of frustration. Undue limitations and isolation from girls also give birth to sexual dissatisfaction and thus sort of aggression in turn leading to sexually harassments.

There are some limitations of this research. Firstly, the sample size of the primary research should have been much bigger as human psychology differs among every human. There is a popular saying about human psychology which is “human psychology is the only part of science without a definition”. So it is hard to make comments based on a small sample size of survey. Time was another problem. We had been given a very short period of time in which it was not possible to work with a bigger sample size of the survey. Moreover, another constraint is that true opinions are often not given by people. Thus, a larger sample survey would have been more effective in making the research more effective. However, given the allowed time frame and despite the constraints, I tried my level best to make my research as effective as possible.

At the end of my research I would recommend several ways that might help reduce the mentioned problems that women face in public transportation.

Education system must be premeditated in a way as to promote positive relationship between girls and boys, especially at a younger age. Co-education encourages competition, but the curriculum must target at building a healthy environment of learning rather than encouraging male-female contact unnecessarily. Boys from conservative backgrounds tend to follow girls more often than boys from rather liberal backgrounds.
Parents' role is very significant. They should keep their children from bad influences. Parents must educate their children 'what to' or 'what not to' watch. They should adopt friendly relations with their children rather than being harsh with them.
Teachers must play their role to repeat moral teachings in the young minds in a more rational and modern way. The Police must be more conscious. They should not take such offensive acts lightly and they should be more active to punish such vagabonds where necessary.

We live in a society in Bangladesh where we all are subject to sexual harassments at one time or the other. We all know how vulnerable women in Bangladesh are towards sexual harassments in public transportation. In Women and Children repression and Prevention Act-2000 an excellent provision was included in section article 10 that teasing of women like making obscene comments or gestures was an offence covered by it providing for up to seven years of simple imprisonment or meticulous imprisonment for two years. But the act was amended in 2003 where no one can be charged with sexual abuse of a woman until it is physical. And thus those who bother women in public places such as streets, shopping places and buses can no longer be tried under this law. This was a very pathetic decision because it was amended at such a time when the degree of sexual harassments was higher in our country.

To build a safe environment where both our mothers and sisters can move freely we need to increase our self awareness and feel other women as our own mothers and sisters. If we tend to realize that we all should respect women and treat them with dignity and support them in every aspects of life, such problems as sexual harassments will not exist.
Alongside the authority should also play an important role by imposing strict law and order enforcements and getting active to reduce the rate of sexual harassments women in our country suffer every day.

References: 1. Mauricio Velsgues (2002). A new era in sexual harassment. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http://stopharass.com

2. Emma Weisfield Adams (2008 Sept. 26). Harassment: the effects of eve teasing on development in Bangladesh. Retrieved March 21 2010, from http://www.thp.org

Julian C. York (2009 Sept. 1). Morocco: Four perspectives on sexual harassment. Retrieved March 21 2010, from http://globalvoicesonline.org

Sabiha Chowdhury (2007 Dec 3). Violence against women in Bangladesh. Retrieved March 21 2010, from http://dspace.bracu.ac.bd

Nadia Shabnam (2009 August 25). Women alone. Retrieved March 21 2010, from http://www.mukto-mona.com

Rehnuma Ahmed (2008 July 7). Of Roses and Sexual Harassment. Retrieved March 20, 2010, from http://www.shahidulnews.com

LAW AND POUR RIGHTS (21 Oct 1999). The daily Star. Pg 8

Appendix:

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Table of contents

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND

AREAS OF RESEARCH

HYPOTHESIS

METHODOLOGY

PRIMARY DATA PRESENTATION & ANALYSIS

SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS

SECONDARY DATA ANALYSIS

LIMITATIONS

RECOMMANDATIONS

CONCLUSION