WUNRN
GUATEMALA - WOMEN-ONLY BUSES
AGAINST SEXUAL HARASSMENT
By Danilo Valladares
|
GUATEMALA
CITY, June 24, 2011 (IPS) - "We are all safer here; it's great because
this way there are no men groping you," Jaqueline Escobar, a sales
executive, told IPS on a bus that is exclusively for women, a service against
sexual harassment that is being tried out in the Guatemalan capital.
The buses,
which for now run from 6:00 to 7:30 am and 5:30 to 7:00 pm, can also be ridden
by boys under 12, who along with the drivers are the only males allowed on.
In its first
two weeks of operations, the new system has won over a large number of
Guatemalan women. "It's a great idea; they should expand it beyond rush
hour, make it available all day long, so all women can feel safe," Escobar
added.
"Yes,
obviously it's less risky for us," Alejandra Zabala, an administrative
assistant who rides the Transurbano to commute to her job on the south side of
the city, told IPS.
Sexual
harassment has become a daily challenge for Guatemalan women who ride the bus.
More than
one-third of the 1,500 complaints received annually by the Association of Urban
and Suburban Transport Users of abuses against passengers involve sexual harassment
of girls and women.
"Men
grope them, treat them rudely, and rub up against them from behind,"
Edgard Guerra, president of the non-governmental association of bus system
users and one of the driving forces behind the initiative, commented to IPS.
"There have even been cases of rape. This is our concern, because our
sisters, daughters and mothers ride the buses."
Spearheading
the initiative was right-wing opposition congresswoman Zury Ríos, who asked the
owners of buses to create women-only spaces, to keep them safe from harassment
and aggression.
"It's
been a success. I'm really happy that women feel safer and that with this
decision, their human rights have begun to be respected," said the
legislator, who is the daughter of former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt
(1982-1983).
Congresswoman
Ríos, who is known for taking up women's causes, said the
But sexual
harassment is only one of the problems faced on buses in
Passengers
are also targeted in robberies on buses, which have become routine.
The United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reports that
From 2006 to
May 2011, a total of 1,201 people were killed on buses, including drivers,
conductors, passengers, security guards and criminals, according to the
ombudsperson's office.
In response
to the growing violence, the government and the business community joined
together to put the Transurbano system into operation in July 2010. The system
was designed to improve safety by upgrading the fleet of vehicles, having
passengers use prepaid cards, installing cameras, and posting security guards
on buses.
So far, only
350 of the total fleet of 3,150 buses in
"I feel
safer here," Verónica Ortega, holding her two-year-old son, told IPS as
she rode home on one of the women-only buses.
"The
problem is that off the bus, harassment is still an issue," Ana María
Cofiño, with the La Cuerda feminist collective, told IPS, describing the buses
as a "palliative" measure.
"Specific
actions like this are taken, but violence in other areas like the workplace or
the streets, or the fact that women are at risk of being raped at any time, are
not addressed," she complained.
Cofiño said
the Guatemalan state has the obligation to guarantee that women have the same access
to opportunities as men, and to carry out awareness-raising campaigns on
respect for women. "If the authorities did this, we would believe there
was a more serious intention of bringing about change," she added.
Ana Silvia
Monzón at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) told IPS that
the initiative makes sense as long as women continue to be harassed on public
transport.
"I hope
it's only temporary and that men's behaviour will improve, but for that to
happen, other measures are needed as well," the expert added.
She
underscored the importance of the 2004-2014 national plan for the prevention of
intra-family violence and violence against women, which entails actions in
different areas, such as education, health and the justice system.
As part of
that plan, in 2008 Congress passed a law against "femicide" –
gender-related murders – in this country of 14 million people, where 5,200
women were killed between 2000 and 2010 as a result of gender violence,
according to police statistics.
Evelyn
Morales, with Tierra Viva, a women's group based in Guatemala City, told IPS
that it will take a major effort to curb harassment and violence against women.
But the women-only buses "are a positive step, because most women
experience being groped, harassed and sexually violated on urban and suburban
buses," she said.
But not
everyone is happy about the measure. "There aren't enough buses, and now
half-empty buses carrying only women will go by," complained Víctor
Guzmán, a factory employee.
The women
only buses were big news, but their future is uncertain. Transurbano spokesman
Sergio Vásquez told IPS that it is a pilot plan that will be assessed.
After the
evaluation, the service could be expanded or replaced by women-only spaces on
buses shared by women and men, he explained. Time will tell, but in the
meantime, women are enjoying the new service.