UnNews:Indian bus drivers forced to declare rape intentions

This article is part of UnNews, your source for up-to-the-picosecond misinformation.

15 January 2013

One of the new style buses on route today.

NEW DELHI, India -- Bus drivers in India will now be obliged to specify on the front of their buses if they have intentions of gang raping female passengers, after the government brought in new measures today.

Just weeks after universal disgust after the gang rape and murder of a young woman in Delhi, a 29 year old in Punjab was this week raped by a driver, a conductor and five friends throughout a nightlong ordeal.

It has led to serious reflection about attitudes to women in a country where many acts of public sexual harassment are referred to euphemistically as Eve teasing. Transport officials have swept into action to make the service more female friendly.

"As from today, all drivers will have to put up clear signs at the front of a bus if they are intent on raping a woman. And conductors are not obliged but have been firmly asked to remind any women who do board the bus what the journey will entail," a spokesman said.

Female rights campaigners say the moves do not go enough. Meera Gupta told India Tonight, a made up discussion programme: "This is symptomatic of the 'Eve' culture, the idea that a woman, just by her very presence, her femininity, is somehow asking to be approached by men. And that approach can range from the most mundane hassling - whistles or salacious comments in the street - to the most horrific acts imaginable, as we have seen in these last few weeks. "

When pressed by presenter Sachin Ganguli as to whether "a woman who boarded a bus with 'rape' as the destination might not be asking for trouble," she rolled her eyes and replied, "I can see no problem there, in a country with literacy rates of 74%. Especially in the countryside. Good job." Unfortunately the camera was off her at this point, and many commentators seem to have accepted her sarcasm as a genuine concession.

Whatever the future for the policy, interest in bus travel is surging, with a rise of 200% in male passengers in the last two weeks, with that figure rising to 350% on lonely country routes.

Sauces

• Leverage, "Total snub: Indian police investigate two new gang rape cases" Guardian, January 10, 2013