Gender based harassment
at public transport: perception of women’s on preventive actions
Shalika sandamali, Priydarshani
Premarathne and Sminda Gnarathne
Gender based harassment at public transport are a worldwide
social issue which creates a negative impact on physical, psychological and
social well-being of women. This qualitative descriptive study has been
designed to identify the knowledge of women passengers on legal actions and
preventive activities of gender based harassment at public transports and
their perception towards the work-ability of the interventions. A convenient
sample of 40 women who consented to participate in the study and who used
public transport system to travel from Kandy Colombo, Negambo and Rathnapura
was selected for the study and it was done over a three month period from October,
2014.
The study revealed that 96% of women have experienced verbal
abuse by being followed and unwanted sexual comments to physical and sexual
harassment. According to the perception of women the majority of abusers are
male aged 45 – 55 years. Though the majority of women are aware of the legal
aspects of gender based violence and preventive actions 70% of women revealed
that due to the cultural and social barriers they are not going to follow those
actions as they think it will be a negative impact on their later life when
travelling. The women aged 25- 45 were highly educated on the legal and
preventive actions but it was less among women aged 45 -60 years. Further, this study revealed that the
perception regarding the preventive action is considerably negative among both
women and men because of the diffusion of responsibility in public sphere. Also
women were not satisfied with the legal procedures that they have to undergo
after the legal actions. This study
concludes that inculcating moral values and public responsibilities in the
public sphere is more important to prevent gender based violence in the system
of public transports.
Key words: Public transport, Gender, Harassment, Preventive
actionsv
