Chennai: Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) to conduct a training programme for its bus drivers and conductors to make sure they behave well with women travelling in the buses. The move comes after the department has started receiving numerous complaints from various districts regarding the ill-treatment of women.
According to reports, the insults have increased after the Tamil Nadu government has announced and implemented free travel for women and transgender in government buses in the state.
Tamil Nadu’s transport minister RS Rajakannappan asserted that he had also been receiving complaints regarding the issue. "The transport ministry will be conducting training programmes for the drivers and conductors on good behaviour towards women. Eminent social scientists will be taking classes for them. The classes will be conducted at the district level," said the minister.
Quoting the minister, the report further said that the transport department would take stringent action against those who abuse or insult women travelling in the buses and a police complaint would also be registered against them.
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Pointing out that both the state government and Tamil Nadu state transport department had conducted multiple workshops on behavioural science, the report said that nothing much has changed on the ground level.
A Trichy-based commuter, Sudha Selvaraj said that they were being treated as a second class citizen in the buses and they feel insulted whenever bus drivers and conductors pass derogatory remarks against them. She said that she had already filed a complaint with the state transport minister regarding the issue and if the complaint is ignored, she would file a complaint to the chief minister, the report added.
(With inputs from IANS)