Men on Violet Line barge into ladies’ coaches the most

The Violet Line of Delhi Metro (Badarpur to Janpath) has the maximum numbers male commuters flouting rules and barging into compartments reserved for women. According to the data provided by CISF, a total of 1,179 male passengers were de-boarded from the ladies coaches between January 1 and July 15 on the Violet Line.

The Central Industrial Security Force conducted a total of 165 operations across all the lines of Delhi Metro from January 1 to July 15 against male intruders in women coaches, in which 2,096 male passengers were de-boarded from compartments reserved for women commuters.

On the Red Line (Dilshad Garden to Rithala) around 422 male commuters were de-boarded from the ladies’ coaches, while on the Green Line (Mundka to Kirti Nagar) 176 male commuters were de-boarded, and 115 male commuters were de-boarded on the yellow line (Jahangirpuri to Huda City Centre).

A majority of women do not feel safe while travelling in Delhi Metro. Most of them face verbal and physical harassment even in the coaches reserved for women.

It is a common sight that male passengers occupy seats of the ladies’ coaches, leaving the women with no other choice than to ask them to vacate the seats. “We face a lot of harassment while travelling with male passengers in crowded trains. That is why the reserved coaches were introduced in the first place. But despite warnings, some men continue to board such coaches. While some men genuinely enter these coaches by mistake, some just sit there purposely. Some men stare at us badly. Boarding Metro at night is unsafe. Once I had asked a man to vacate a seat in a ladies’ compartment but he ignored it,” said Rachna Sareen, a Metro commuter.

“We face a lot of harassment while travelling along with male passengers on crowded trains. It’s more frustrating when they barge into compartments reserved for us,” said Bharti Raturi, a Metro commuter.

Recalling an incident that happened a few days ago, Bharti said, a few men entered the ladies’ coach and refused to exit. “When I got down at Rajiv Chowk, I complained to the marshals there but they did nothing and told me to report the matter to a lady marshal. But I could not find a woman marshal around.”