Transjakarta Has Ladies Area in the Bus

Ladies, you are special in Jakarta!

I found this out when I stepped into the (reliable?) public transportation in Jakarta called Transjakarta this morning. As usual, river of people flew from the waiting station to the bus after waiting for a couple of minutes. Because the front part of the bus was a bit vacant (compared to the packed rear part of the bus), I walked forward and held on the rail. I never expect to get a seat in the “busway” (called this way because the bus has a special lane on the street, in short, busway). Some lucky women who got the seats looked at me. Because of my hairdo? No. As the bus went on, I looked around and read everything readable. Then my eyes stuck at a sticker on the window.“Ladie’s area” is written. (I have to admit, the people working in the company might not have good English).

Next to the sticker was another sign, saying: ”Show your courtesy, prioritize the disabled, women and senior” with the word “woman” printed in bold and darker color.

Transjakarta now has a special area for women in the bus.

I remembered the station used to have different waiting lines for men and women. Now the bus has different section for the both genders.

As the respond to eight cases of sexual harassment in the bus happened during 2011, the management finally decided to do something to minimize the harm to its female passenger.

“Sexual harassment indeed increases because more corridors are operating right now,” said Muhammad Akbar, Transjakarta director of public services, to beritajakarta.com.

The management applied the division of passengers based on sex on December 12, 2012 after 90 percent passengers (mostly women) surveyed agreed on the division.

“This is to minimize the sexual harassment, especially when the bus is full,” said Akbar to Kompas.com.

However, Abdi Tama, a blogger in Kompasiana.com, stated that the initiative was accommodating the need to reduce harm to women but was not enacted properly.  During his several rides, he observed that some men were still standing or seating in the ladies’ area but the officer did not do anything or ask the passengers to move to men’ area.