Another incident of rape took place in a bus in Narayanganj. According to a report of Prothom Alo, a housewife got on a Muktijoddha Paribahan bus from Jatrabari to go to Gauchhia around 10:00pm on Sunday. The housewife was alone in the bus as all the other passengers got down the bus at Chittagong Road bus stand.
The bus driver continued to drive around on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway instead of going on the Bhulta-Gauchhia route through Kanchpur. The driver, supervisor and their assistant closed the doors and windows of the bus and played music loudly, and raped the woman when the bus reached at Madanpur adjacent to Zaheen Textile Mills.
At one point, the housewife managed to go out of the bus and made a call to the National Emergency Service 999 and informed police about the matter. The housewife was rescued on the night and the culprits were arrested. The bus driver is on remand and the supervisor and assistant have been sent to the juvenile correctional centre in Gazipur as they are minors.
Although there are frequent incidents of rape and harassment of women on buses in Bangladesh, there is not much social resistance or movement against it. However, on 16 December, 2012, there was a nationwide protest against the rape and murder of a physiotherapy student Nirbhaya (pseudonym) on a moving bus in Delhi. As a result, the number of crimes on public transport has decreased a lot there.
In the nineties of the last century, when a group of police raped a teenager named Yasmin, a social and political movement erupted in Bangladesh. The perpetrators were also punished. Subsequent incidents of harassment of women on public transport did not trigger much protest. The exception was the incident of rape and murder of Rupa in 2017. Four criminals have also been punished in this incident. The reality is only those incidents were tried and the perpetrators are punished, that faced strong protest.
If any crime occurs in a private vehicle, both the owner and the driver of that transport have to take the responsibility. The same should be applicable for public transport. When owners take public transport out on the road with government clearance, they have to meet certain conditions, especially to reach the passengers to their destinations safely. If otherwise happens, the owner has to take responsibility along with the transport worker. According to a study, 30 per cent of public transport workers are addicted. Be it the vehicle or the passengers— no one is safe in their hands.
It is important to bring the owner of the bus to book for the incident of rape in Narayanganj. This is because the transport companies have the responsibility to check the biodata of the employees before hiring them and verify them beforehand. It is the responsibility of the owner to ensure that those who are being hired can ensure the safety of the passengers. If the transport owners and organisations are held accountable, it will be possible to ensure a lot of caution in hiring drivers and workers.
Not only in public transport, but everywhere inside and outside the house, women are suffering from lack of security and are being killed and raped. Strict enforcement of the law is necessary as well as social resistance against perpetrators to protect women. A teenage girl in India recently wrote in her suicide note that women are not safe anywhere except in the grave and the womb. If these terrible events do not serve as a wake-up call, more dangers lie ahead of us.