Kathmandu seeks to curb bus assaults on women

Nepalese capital to run women-only buses in response to three-fold rise in reported sexual harassment of women.

According to police reports sexual assaults on women in Nepal trebled in 2014 [Al Jazeera]

Nepal’s capital Kathmandu has introduced women-only buses in an attempt to reduce sexual harassment, including inappropriate touching on public transport, a senior government official has said.

“There were complaints that women are facing groping and sexual harassment while travelling in crowded buses,” Tulsi Prasad Sitaula, a senior transport ministry official, said on Tuesday.

There are no official figures for the number of sexual assaults in Nepal. However, police say reports of violence against women – which include rape, domestic violence and molestation, more than trebled in the twelve months up to July 2014 to 6,800.

The rise is attributed to greater awareness of gender crimes.

The initiative will start with four 16-seater buses covering a popular east-west route across the city during peak morning and evening hours.

Operators said the buses would initially have male drivers and that only one of the conductors was female. They are seeking to recruit more women staff.

“We want to gradually employ female drivers and conductors in these vehicles. But it is hard to find them,” said Dharma Raj Rimal of the National Federation of Transport Entrepreneurs group which is behind the initiative.

“If there is demand and the service becomes popular, we plan to expand to other routes in the city and extend its timing,” he added.

Female commuters in Kathmandu welcomed the move. “It is safer as well as more comfortable, but the buses must also run when it gets dark and when it is difficult for women to travel,” said 17-year-old student Parbati Gurung.

The overwhelming majority of women polled in a recent survey carried out by Thomson Reuters Foundation in the world’s 15 largest capitals said they would feel safer in single-sex areas on buses and trains.

This article first appeared on the Thomson Reuters Foundation news service