Female Traffic Conductors Face Chaotic Roads, Sexual Harassment

By Anju Gautam

KATHMANDU, NEPAL -- About a kilometer away from Pashupatinath temple, one of the world's holiest Hindu temples, scores of vehicles were racing down the road. As the drivers of the vehicles tried to overtake each other, an unmanageable traffic jam and the sound of piercing horns resulted. And amidst such chaos Sunita,23, dressed in dark blue pants, a sky blue shirt and black boots was busy signaling the automobiles, standing in the middle of road. This is a typical scene in Gaushala, one of the busiest crossroads in Kathmandu.

Sunita, who declined to give her last name for fear for reprisal, is one of only 62 female traffic conductors working in the Kathmandu Valley. Sunita often struggles to control the traffic. The drivers ignore her directions and drive their vehicles fast and in whichever lane they want to. Sunita says that in the process of trying to control the traffic she also faces verbal abuse and sexual harassment from motorists on a regular basis.

Sunita stands amidst traffic in Gaushala.

After losing her mother at the age of nine, Sunita became a domestic worker while she went to school until the age of 16. Soon after her marriage, at 18, she returned to her childhood home after being unable to face the pysical and mental abuse from her husband. Sunita says she became a traffic conductor with the help of a neighbor in 2000 to prove that women can make contributions to society by doing challenging jobs. However, here too, she faces verbal abuses and sexual remarks from the pedestrians and drivers. "Life cannot be as we think, I would not suggest anyone to join this job," Sunita says.

According to Traffic Police Office at Singhadurbar, Kathmandu, there are 125 available jobs for female traffic directors, but only 62 jobs are currently filled. Though Nepal ratified the Convention On the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women 1979 (CEDAW), which recognizes women's right to gender equality and includes protection from sexual harassment, sources say that sexual harassment in male dominated posts, like traffic conductors, is still quite common.. There are various laws in Nepal which deal with sexual exploitation; however, there are no specific laws that target sexual harassment.

According to a 2005 study conducted by Forum for Women Law and Development, a Nepali NGO, 54 percent of female employees have experienced sexual harassment in the work place here. In 2003, three NGOs jointly filed a case in the Supreme Court of Nepal, for ‘Shobha Shah’, a woman who was working in Hotel Yak and Yeti, a popular tourist destination, and was frequently being harassed in her office. The court ruled that women like 'Shobha Shah' should have protections from sexual harassment and directed the government to enact a specific law classifying sexual harassment as a violation of equal rights. It has been four years since the Supreme Court directed the government to take necessary measures to enact laws on sexual harassment, but no action has been taken yet. It is unclear whether the new interim government, which was formed on 1 April 2007, will prioritize drafting a sexual harassment law.

Sunita has been working as a traffic conductor for seven years. She says she has grown fed up with the comments she gets from drivers and pedestrians. "When their vehicles are stopped they just stare at us [female traffic conductors] and when they start their engines they scold us with abusive words," Sunita says. "During night duty, a few drivers have stopped their vehicles and asked me to go with them saying that they would give me better money."

Motorists often shout insutls and ignore the directions given by female traffic conductors.

Assistant Inspector Murari Mishra of the Traffic Police Head Office says, "Whenever people see beautiful ladies, they pass remarks. This happens everywhere."

Others say that while sexual harassment might be a problem on the street, it is not a problem in the office. Diwa Rai, 24, also a traffic woman, works in the bustling Putalisadak area. She says she has never faced sexual harassment from her male counterparts.

Among the 62 women employed as traffic conductors is Constable Pabitra Thapa who came to Kathmandu from Makwanpur, central district of Nepal, in search of a job. She has directed traffic at Putalisadak, one of the busiest commercial centers in Kathmandu, for the past two years. She spends about eight hours of her day in the middle of the road controlling the heavy traffic at the area. She says she too is often sexually harassed with abusive words during her night duties, "We work through day and night and it feels really bad to be scolded," she said. She is now preparing for the examination of Assistant Inspector and she feels that the society should change its way of viewing women as inferior beings.

Many of the female traffic conductors say that in addition to sexual harassment, they also struggle with people who do not respect their authority. One young student studying at the Bachelor level at Sankhar Dev College in Kathmandu, who declined to reveal his identity says, "It is true. Even I have been riding my motorbike without a license for the past two years. I can walk away if I am caught by women traffic [conductors] but it is difficult to do so with the male traffic [conductors]."

Local attorney Shanta Sedhai blames the prominent patriarchal mindset of Nepal for the sexual harassment women here face. She says "It is unfortunate that despite the directives from the Supreme Court, a law has not yet been made."

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