A plan to introduce segregated seating based on gender on angkot minivans has been shelved, after officials realized that the policy, which was designed to curb sexual harassment, would present a new hurdle.
The Jakarta Provincial Government this week said that it’s drafting new regulations segregating men and women on angkots in response to a viral sexual harassment incident in South Jakarta.
Angkots generally comprise two parallel seats along the back of the minivans, with the right side (behind the driver) able to seat up to seven people, while the seat on the left is shorter as to avoid restricting the vehicle’s door on the same side, and thus is able to seat up to five people.
Under the scrapped rule, male passengers would be entitled to the longer seat, while women would get the seat on the left.
“But that would leave women shortchanged. They would have even more limited seats even though there are more female passengers,” Jakarta Vice Governor Ahmad Riza Patria conceded yesterday, without specifying where he obtained the passenger statistics.
In gender segregation’s stead, the provincial government says it will press on with other measures to curb sexual harassment on angkots, such as providing training to drivers and establishing a call center for women and children passengers.
While gender segregation would have been new for angkot minivans, other modes of public transportation in Jakarta have long provided women-only sections in their vehicles in a bid to counter sexual harassment.
Critics, however, have argued that segregating women on public transportation does more to normalize sexual harassment than protect them. True enough, sexual harassment on Jakarta public transportation continues to be a problem year in, year out.
