Ladies only trains in India - are they fair? Necessary?

[M V]

Ladies special local is operational in Mumbai since 1992 and it is a great boon. They run in the morning and in the evening (one train) and I have travelled in that. Infact I used to wait to get in a ladies local.
There are not more than 5 compartment for ladies in a normal local train and it gets very very crowded.
Last week I attempted to travel in ladies reservation coach from Pune to Mumbai (long distance?) and the coach was crowded in first 5 minutes. [/quote]
Mumbai, I was a little surprised with the above. Your posts generally have a "deal with it" attitude, and I remember a thread about eve-teasing where you said that often the solution is in the hands of the women themselves - they can use humor or smart retorts to take care of it. It was a little surprising to read you advocating special accommodations for women commuters and calling them a boon. Maybe my surprise will end if I travel in those trains myself... : ) Traveled only 2-3 times, and many years ago.

[mn_op]

A Women only train "quota" is an attempt to patch a massive problem, an infrastructure that is crumbling under the pressure of population explosion.

I agree. The population in Indian metros has grown so much that we need such patches. I wouldn't be surprised if they start trains only for school kids.

The security for girls in hostel may feel like an overkill but I suspect that the barriers are melting away albeit slowly. Most of the cages were established by our well meaning principals.

In 1997, In Chennai, I got a cultural shock when I saw metal barricade inside the city bus to enforce gender separation...I was used to Mumbai's BEST where everybody 'queues' up silently.

In 2004, I got anotehr cultural shock in Kolkata when a seriously hot girl decided to share seat with the auto rikshaw driver than with me in the back.

[bombaygirl]

I'm from Bombay and my aunt's still travel by train to work in ladies specials. How many of you know Dombivili? People in Bombay says that you must have committed a sin to be living in Dombivili.

It is boon for people who travel long distance to get to work. I say, they need to add these ladies specials every half an hour between 7am and 9:30am and between 5pm and 730pm. Even if we consider all the line running in Bombay, it will be max 25 trains in each direction.

But in general, the frequncy of trains should be increased. Say one in every 3-4 minutes. I still remember the time when I could not get down in my station, had to get down the next and take another train back. LOL!!!!! I'm sure it has gotten worse since...Of course ladies specials are fair and necessary, considering that there is going to be a 33% quota for women in politics. The common woman is not asking for much. Just some ladies specials to help them get by...

[munna_bhai]

A Women only train "quota" is an attempt to patch a massive problem, an infrastructure that is crumbling under the pressure of population explosion. Such measures will only work for a brief period of time, but consume a lot of bureaucratic time & machinery (which is already short). The bigger problem is the absurd precedences that such measures create. As an example, take girl's hostels. In my wife's college, girl's hostel were all covered by big steel gates and enclosures, so as to "protect" the girls. For her, it was more of a feeling of being in a zoo cage. What is next, a steel barrier between boys & girls in schools, or separate lunch times for girls and boys? Outside India, only primitive Muslim countries have such barriers, or ones that used to follow apartheid.

If there is adequate amount of public transportation available, and law & order problems are fixed, then need for such temporary measures will automatically evaporate.

Japan has ladies only train..

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/International/story?id=803965

Few more countries that also have women only cars/trains

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women-only_passenger_car

[My Roots]

I agree. The population in Indian metros has grown so much that we need such patches. I wouldn't be surprised if they start trains only for school kids.

The security for girls in hostel may feel like an overkill but I suspect that the barriers are melting away albeit slowly. Most of the cages were established by our well meaning principals.

In 1997, In Chennai, I got a cultural shock when I saw metal barricade inside the city bus to enforce gender separation...I was used to Mumbai's BEST where everybody 'queues' up silently.

In 2004, I got anotehr cultural shock in Kolkata when a seriously hot girl decided to share seat with the auto rikshaw driver than with me in the back.

LOL.
Keep this tip in mind if you ever come to BengaLuru and happen to take BMTC(City) bus service:
Gents are supposed to get into bus from back door. The front door near conductor and few front row seats are reserved for ladies only.
I have seen some poor guys who come from other far cities trying to use front door to get into bus during peak hours and oh boy .... only they know what kind of words they have received.

Once I had to witness an incidence where a guy from DhArawADa(Dharwar) was victim of one ladies loving words. It was his mistake but still he looked totally new to the city so he tried to climb the bus using front door.
He got so furious to receive that ladies words and even said that "if you come to DhArawADa and do this, I would have given you a laath" Actually he said "jhadisi odeyuttidde" in Kannada.

Ps: DharawaDa/HubbaLLi(Hubli)is known for male domination. I hope no one from that part is reading my post :)

[Mumbai_2009]

Mumbai, I was a little surprised with the above. Your posts generally have a "deal with it" attitude, and I remember a thread about eve-teasing where you said that often the solution is in the hands of the women themselves - they can use humor or smart retorts to take care of it. It was a little surprising to read you advocating special accommodations for women commuters and calling them a boon. Maybe my surprise will end if I travel in those trains myself... : ) Traveled only 2-3 times, and many years ago.

I am surprised myself that you assume that my thoughts about Ladies special train is to prevent/avoid eve-teasing.
Ladies compartments are very less in local trains and they are not enough. Either increase the compartments or make a specail train for them. I am fine either ways. Government took a decision for ladies special train to accomodate large number of ladies commuters (office goers) than inccreasing ladies compartment in a trains. Ladies special only runs during office hours and I advocate for increasing the frequency of ladies special train say atleast every 2 hours during morning as well as evening time. I never travelled in ladies specail to avoid eve teasing but only for convenience as they are a little less crowded and I can get off from the overhead foot bridge and get in any compartment without thinking if its men or not.

[Mumbai_2009]

I'm from Bombay and my aunt's still travel by train to work in ladies specials. How many of you know Dombivili? People in Bombay says that you must have committed a sin to be living in Dombivili.

I know Dombivli as one of my very good friends stays there. All you have to just stand and you are directly push out of the train. Don't even have to make an effort to lift your feet. your feet is lifted by someone elses feet. People who have experience it will know what i am talking about. When I used to travel to Dombivli in 1996 it was much much better but these days its extremely difficult. Even Dombivli local runs with overflowing crowd. I try to prevent morning/evening hours to travel in local trains.

[M V]

I am surprised myself that you assume that my thoughts about Ladies special train is to prevent/avoid eve-teasing.
Ladies compartments are very less in local trains and they are not enough. Either increase the compartments or make a specail train for them. I am fine either ways. Government took a decision for ladies special train to accomodate large number of ladies commuters (office goers) than inccreasing ladies compartment in a trains. Ladies special only runs during office hours and I advocate for increasing the frequency of ladies special train say atleast every 2 hours during morning as well as evening time. I never travelled in ladies specail to avoid eve teasing but only for convenience as they are a little less crowded and I can get off from the overhead foot bridge and get in any compartment without thinking if its men or not.

The suggested handling of eve-teasing was only one example of "deal with it" and gutsy attitude that I admire : )

If crowded trains are the reason for providing ladies compartment or special trains, don't men face the same problem of crowd? Then, why special measure needed to alleviate the problem for ladies, and none for men? Convenience? Don't men commuters deserve the same convenience?

[Mumbai_2009]

The eve-teasing was only one example of "deal with it" and gutsy attitude : ) If crowded trains are the reason for providing ladies compartment or special trains, don't men face the same problem of crowd? Then, why special measure needed to alleviate the problem for ladies, and none for men? Convenience?

as I said ladies compartments are about 20% for the entire length of the train. More than 80% train reserved for men. You still think Men need a special train when a normal train looks like a Speical Men train anyways.
Out of 20%...10% become Men compartment after 10 pm. Government do think about Men too...

[M V]

as I said ladies compartments are about 20% for the entire length of the train. More than 80% train reserved for men. You still think Men need a special train when a normal train looks like a Speical Men train anyways. [/quote]
Huh? 80% of train is reserved for men?