Pink Seats And Women-Only Train Carriages In Jakarta

Women travelling in busy train carriages often have to deal with men taking advantage by purposefully bumping into them.

Jakarta, Indonesia, is now introducing women-only train carriages along a busy commuter route to stop this problem. But is this going to work?

Of course it will work for those women who manage to get a space on the women-only carriage. But for everyone else? I don’t think so.

It’s a band aid solution not a real one. If men think it’s okay to grope and grind women in the train then that’s a cultural problem that needs to be addressed.

The problem with this new strategy is that it might result in women becoming even more nervous about taking the mixed sex carriages. The separation confirms the idea that men are going to grope them and they need to be separated.

I’ve taken many busy trains over the years and have only once had this happen to me. Am I just lucky? Or is there something innate within certain cultures that makes it okay for men to grope women?

It’s good to improve the safety and security of the women on the trains, yes.

But most men are not perverts and creeps. If the assaults are happening enough to warrant separation then they have serious cultural and sexual issues they need to address within their society.