A Study on Sexual Harassment against Women in Public Transport: Dhaka City Badda Area

Background: This article tries to find out the sexual harassment against women in the public transport and identify the consequences of sexual harassment against women in public transport from the Badda area of Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Methodology: This is a quantitative type of study; Purposive sampling techniques were done, and data were collected via face-to-face interview with structured questionnaire. Data was calculated by SPSS software. Result: The study found that the harassment against women in the public transport was very high (68%) unfortunately. The scenario has shown that public transports (80%) were mostly crowded that is why women face difficulties to get in and off. In fact, women faced misbehaved (70%) by the driver and conductors and faced harassment (20%) by the co-passengers. Bullying (20%) and body shaming (16%) were common for women in public transports. In these reasons, the consequences also horrible. Women felt helpless (68%), could not get enough support from family. Many of them needed to take mental care (44%). Some of them tried to quit their job due to the harassment in the public transport. None of the victims seek legal assistance (100%) due to fear, social stigma, and social dignity. Conclusion: Women were facing sexual harassment in public transport and it’s a serious issue. Lack of proper education on gender sensitivity, intention of perverters, improper implementation of policy, loose law enforcement policy and monitoring, lack of family support, insufficient number of public transports against population number, overcrowded are the reasons for sexual harassment of women in the public transportation. Due to lack of action being taken against the perpetrators, harassment exists in the system. In this study, there were some possible solutions suggested by the respondents who faced harassment in the public transport in Dhaka city from Badda,