Press Release: Bangkok bus authority makes buses safe to travel for women and girls

Other language: Thai

Bangkok - The Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) joins the global effort ‘Orange your Journey’ to combat sexual harassment against women and girls on its 3,509 public buses by training its staff on techniques to deal with incidents, encouraging passengers to not accept and speak out and preventing them.

The BMTA has identified seven forms of sexual harassment prevailing on public buses: unexpected touching, taking liberties, rubbing with private parts, indecent exposure, staring, making passes and pestering. This harassment can be more likely when buses are congested and so encouraging passengers to be vigilant and to know how to intervene to prevent these assaults is important for the BMTA.

Serving three million commuters per day, the BMTA and the Teeranat Kanjanauksorn Foundation have worked on the “Pineapple Eyes” project to provide BMTA staff with a better understanding of sexual harassment and tools to address it. Through this partnership, 500 of 14,000 BMTA's staff at eight bus districts in Bangkok and its vicinity have received training.

From today, the BMTA will continue this work in commemorating the International day for the Elimination of Violence against Women when it joins with UN Women and the Teeranart Kanjanauksorn Foundation to raise awareness for preventing sexual assaults on public buses, in support of the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE Campaign to End Violence against Women. The BMTA will also release some 10,000 stickers, pamphlets and video clips to help effort to end sexual taunts.  As a result of this outreach “Bus drivers and conductors, who are at the frontlines, will be better equipped with deeper understanding and practical techniques to ensure safety of all women travellers,” said Mr. Opas Petchmunee, Director of the BMTA.

One main priority of UN Women which works to secure gender equality and the advancement is ending all forms of violence against women and girls. “Ensuring that public spaces are safe is especially important for women’s access to their human rights,” said Ms. Roberta Clarke, Regional Director of UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and Representative in Thailand.

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Media Contact:

Montira Narkvichien, Regional Communications Specialist, UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Ph: +66 81 66 88 900; E-mail: [ Click to reveal ]

More information on UN Women at http://asiapacific.unwomen.org  

NOTE TO EDITORS

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.

UNiTE to End Violence against Women is the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s campaign to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls in all parts of the world by 2015. Through UNiTE, the entire UN system is joining forces with governments, civil society, women’s organizations, young people, the media and the private sector to raise public awareness, increase political will and resources, and strengthen partnerships to end violence against women and girls.

The Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) is a state enterprise under the Ministry of Transport. BMTA was established in 1976 to provide transport services in Bangkok and its vicinity of Nontaburi, Nakhon Pathom, Pathum Thani, Samut Sakorn and Samut Prakan. It operates 114 commuter routes and lists 3,509 buses, 1,659 of which are open-air and 1,850 are air-conditioned.

About this event 

This event is held on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and is in support of the UN Secretary-General’s global campaign called UNiTE, which aims to engage all sectors of society in joining hands to say no to violence against women. The 16 Days between the 25^th Nov and the 10^th of December, which is Human Rights Day, is referred to as the “16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence” where people from all walks of life around the world are encouraged to raise awareness of gender-based violence as a human rights issue. Sexual harassment is a violation of women’s rights and is a form of violence against women. We are saying today that this must stop and if we work together, it can.

Why orange? Orange is the color that has been adopted to unite all countries in ending violence against women and has been incorporated into activities taking place all around the world to address this. It symbolizes our collective effort to create a future free of violence against women and wearing orange today as a symbol of joining others around the world in realizing that vision. The orange symbol is active year-round and the 25^th of every month is “Orange Day” where we encourage everyone to wear orange and help raise awareness of violence against women and the solutions that can end it. Everyone all can and should play a part as violence against women is not just a woman’s issues but it impacts all universally.   

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