Paper short abstract:

This paper by examining the huge gap between women's travel requirements and the existing public transport system in Dhaka city introduces the need for a bottom-up approach where women's unique travel insights will be at the core of the new gender-responsive public transport policies in Bangladesh.

Paper long abstract:

This paper investigates the underlying reasons behind the Government of Bangladesh's (GoB) failure to introduce a gender-responsive public transportation system in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Public transport is a gendered space and therefore, gender-responsive public transport facilities, that promote sustainable mobility for women are mandatory for women's safe and equitable access to urban life. However, studies explore that poor street lighting, insufficient buses and stops, all-male transport staff, limited seating facilities, inadequate public toilets at public transport stops and increasing cases of sexual harassment (SH) inside buses yet characterise public transportation facilities in Dhaka (Rahman and Nahrin 2012; Zohir 2003; ActionAid 2014; ActionAid 2016). This paper adopts a qualitative research approach utilising 15 life-story interviews with women commuters in Dhaka and 5 in-depth interviews with government officials of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority to explore the gap between women commuters' transport expectations and the existing transport policies in Bangladesh. The findings of this study show that GoB is engaged in a top-down approach to introduce a gender-responsive public transport, where transportation policies and frameworks are planned mostly by male bureaucrats and policymakers that lack women's insights. Hence, many of GoB's new interventions to address SH on public transport remains beyond the reach of general women commuters. Therefore, this paper asks for a bottom-up approach where women's voices will be heard at every stage of the physical planning and design of the transportation system to ensure gender-responsive public transport in Dhaka city.