The Peshawar Sustainable Bus Rapid Transit Corridor Project will have trained staff to deal with harassment incidents, as 90% of women reported feeling unsafe using existing bus services, says Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The ADB released, “Gender Bond investor brief update”, highlighting ADB’s first gender bond issued in 2017 and projects that promote gender equality in Pakistan and the People’s Republic of China.
The brief states that ADB is supporting the “Pakistan: Peshawar Sustainable Bus Rapid Transit Corridor Project”, with $335 million.
Measures to reduce sexual harassment risks for women passengers are embedded in a project that ADB committed to in 2017 for the development of the first bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor in the northern city of Peshawar.
Facilities of the BRT will include proper lighting and closed-circuit television cameras. Women will have segregated seating areas.
Staff will be trained to deal with harassment incidents. The design responds to gender analysis findings during project preparation that 90% of women felt unsafe using Peshawar’s existing bus services and preferred to walk an average of 2 kilometers per day or, for those who could afford it, pay more for safer transport.
The project will ensure that 10% of employees of the BRT and two other entities involved in the operations are women. BRT stations and stops will also have guaranteed earmarked commercial spaces for women’s trading and businesses. The gender action plan also includes a series of multimedia campaigns against sexual harassment aimed at reaching a mass audience of at least 480,000 BRT riders a day.
It will also have dharna lectures, dance tactics etc…
Sick Mentality
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