Zeenat Ramzan
Travelling in an overcrowded bus is very perturbing. Jerks, suffocation, angry faces and lack of fresh air are that a female traveller has to face whenever she travels in an overcrowded passenger bus.
A journey in an overcrowded bus is a horrifying experience. For the past few months, this has been happening with me on daily basis. I can’t wait for another bus and always prefer the one having no seats available just to reach my destination and home well in time.
Despite the fact that I find no chance to board the overcrowded bus, I still prefer the same. Somehow managing space into the bus gives a feel like a packed pickle. Having no option and as a student, I have to reach college in time. This doesn’t happen to me only but with all the students especially female ones who are out of homes for schools, colleges and universities. Female employees having no means of transport meet the same fate.
Travelling in an overcrowded bus is a horrendous experience. Morning or evening time doesn’t matter at all as the experience is quite the same. Pushing each other is conventional in overcrowded buses. The rising temperature causes one to sweat, a lot of people feel suffocated and unconscious while travelling in overcrowded buses like me.
There is a lack of fresh air and we are not even able to breathe freely. People shout in all corners. Frequent traffic snarls and rash driving of the driver adds to our misery. Relief comes when we reach our destination. There is a big downside of travelling in the overcrowded bus, that is, threat of theft especially that of pick pockets.
I remember an incident which happened on Oct 15, 2022. It was Saturday and I was in the overcrowded bus and as usual many passengers were standing. Thus a boy, a pickpocket, stole the purse of a man. The person didn’t feel that someone has stolen his purse full of money.
There are also those who misbehave with female passengers on purpose. So, literally females are not safe in overcrowded buses. How many such incidents have we seen that males either boys or even grown men, irk female passengers. As we all know what problems we are going through today, that is, drug addiction. We can’t even find out how many people are addicted. Even if they are in front of us we would not be able to tell them that they are drug addicts or drug peddlers. So, the point of view is that, if the drug addicts or drug peddlers are also in the bus, is anyone safe in the bus either males or females? No, because they are not in their senses after consuming drugs. They could misbehave with anyone and no one can do anything to it, because there is no space to move.
I vividly remember another incident which happened recently in the overcrowded bus. A boy was standing in the bus and a girl was sitting besides me. The boy slapped the girl on her face without any reason and the girl who was just looking here and there and couldn’t understand what happened and why this happened? I was also shocked as to why he did so? There were a lot of male passengers and they didn’t do anything, they didn’t even dare to ask him that what is happening to you? So, how anyone would be able to defend, especially a woman? We should think about this that female students are in the bus, old passengers, children and handicapped are also there. We used to tolerate these things everyday but in the end we get what? Reached college late just because they stop the bus relentlessly to fill the bus with passengers which leads to congestion.
So, the Government should think on this issue seriously and the number of women special buses should be increased to 5 to 10 in every districts. The more frequent the buses, the less crowded they will be and even less will be the discomfort amongst the passengers. The government should at least address the issue of overcrowding to begin with.
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