While legal experts and women rights activists laud the government for the move, they also question the pursuance of the complaint registered
Published Aug 27, 2022 | 1:00 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 27, 2022 | 1:00 PM
Activists and legal experts welcomed the move but questions the pursuance of the same. (Supplied)
A man can now be arrested in Tamil Nadu for staring at women passengers on a public bus. The state government has amended its public transport rules to ensure this.
In a bid to make travelling on buses safe for women, the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles Rules of 1989 were amended on 18 August to empower bus conductors to hand over a male passenger to the police for misbehaviour with any female traveller.
The conductor can, however, only do so after confirming the incident with co-passengers and acting upon a woman’s complaint.
Under the amended rules, acts like staring, leering, winking, or whistling at women passengers, or singing songs to them will be deemed as causing annoyance to or harassment of a female passenger.
However, when it comes to staring, it is not clear how long the gaze may linger before it becomes an offence.
The new rules specifically prohibit taking photos or videos of women on the bus, or making any other form of electronic communication with them without their consent.
The move is the second woman-centric step that the MK Stalin-led DMK government in Tamil Nadu has taken to make travel on public transport easier for them. Earlier, it made it free for female commuters to travel on state-owned buses for intra-city travel.
Women’s rights groups had hailed free travel for women. This time, too, they have welcomed the move, saying measures against harassment on public transport have been a long-pending demand of theirs.
Under the amended rules, the conductor has to first ascertain whether an act by a male passenger can be deemed as harassment under Clause (n) of Section 2 of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
Once certain, the conductor can force the offender off the bus or hand him over to the police.
At the same time, the rules also seek to prevent (male) conductors from making inappropriate remarks and sexual overtures, or touching a woman under the pretext of helping her board or alight from the bus.
“Conductors should not make any physical contact or any sexually coloured remarks or comments or jokes advancing towards woman passengers or girls involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures, such as touching or pinching to indicate his sexually suggestive innuendos,” the amended rules state.
Conductors are required to maintain a complaint book for passengers to record any grievance regarding dereliction on their part.
The complaint book has to be produced before officials of the Motor Vehicles Department of the government or the police when asked.
Chennai advocate Shantha Kumari told South First that staring at women might not be considered sexual harassment, but whistling definitely did.
Whistling is akin to calling out to a woman, she explained, welcoming the move to put a stop to it. As for the amendments as a whole, Kumari said it was an attempt to alert misbehaving men to the illegality of their actions.
“When implemented, some laws may not look good, but they yield the results upon being practised,” she said. “This is one of that kind. People must consider the amendments positively so that sexual harassment of women ends.”
She also echoed the need to pursue the cases once registered, and urged the government to focus on the same to make the rule effective.
Women’s rights activist Shalin Maria Lawrence welcomed the move, calling it a “long-pending demand” of women in the state. However, she warned that more needed to be done; the amendments by themselves wouldn’t help.
“The move is laudable. But how the government is going to implement it is the question,” she told South First.
In her view, many laws passed by the state government are good on paper but amount to nothing as the implementation process fails.
“So, the state should not stop with the rules,” Lawrence said. “It must pursue the complaint and should not drop the case.”
There was also a need to spread awareness about the issue of sexual harassment, and the process, she said, especially in schools and colleges.
“Educational institutions should spread awareness,” she said. Women, too, should be made aware of their legal options, she said.
Lawrence was also sceptical of results once a complaint was registered. “The police are primarily men,” she said. “I fear they will not take any action but instead blame the women.”
Arulthumilan, a male rights activist and the founder of the Association for Men’s Protection, Tamil Nadu, told South First that women could misuse the amended rule and lodge fake complaints.
“The law paves the way for women to act not only against those who do wrong but also against all men,” he said.
“A woman might have a personal grudge against a man and. She can level specific sexual abuse charges against him to settle scores. If this is the situation, there will come a time when men will demand a separate bus for themselves,” he said.
Arulthumilan also wondered how a woman would prove a man was “staring” at her.
“The rule is absurd. The government should definitely punish men who assault woman sexually or harass her,” he said. “But we know of cases when a man has faced fake sexual allegations from women, and this rule will only make this worse.”
