In November last year, two sisters from Thana Khurd village in Haryana shot to fame after beating up three young men, their alleged harassers, on board a Haryana State Roadways bus.
Soon after though, witnesses came out in support of the three youths claiming that the fight was over a seat and not due to sexual harassment. Reports of previous incidents – of the girls beating up other boys – also began to surface, forcing the state government to put their bravery award on hold.
Then, in a further twist this year in February, the girls reportedly failed a lie-detector test conducted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT). Interestingly, their ‘harassers’ passed.
But amidst all the noise and allegations, one crucial point has been missed – why was there such a big fight over a bus seat?
A clue to the answer to that question is distance. Or more specifically, the distance that Aarti (21) and Pooja(19) – ‘the Rohtak sisters’ as they came to be known as – travelled every day.
It was a gruelling journey, 37 kilometres, just going to college and another 37 returning home.
Waking up at 5 am, the girls would leave home an hour later to make it to the first lecture.
From Thana Khurd, we would walk to the bus-stand 5 kilometres away. Then, we would take the bus to Kharkhauda, which would be completely filled with students. People would be sitting even on rooftops and there would be no space to breathe. From there, we would then take another bus to Rohtak, which would be equally crowded. From Rohtak bus-stand, we would walk to our college. The auto charged Rs. 10 per passenger, so it was more economical to walk.
— Pooja to The Quint
It was a 3-hour one-way journey and often, by the time they reached college, they would already be tired.
The return home would be tougher. Sometimes, people would fight, either with the driver or with each other, inevitably leading to further delays. “It was common to be late by an hour or two”, Pooja says.
The seats were the prized possessions, never easy to come by. And passengers with student passes rarely got them.
There are many villages on the route, so the buses are always crowded. Forget seats reserved for women, the boys are so badtameez and rowdy that they occupy even seats mean for people with disabilites. Even if one is feeling unwell or weak, there is no question of getting a place to sit.
— Pooja to The Quint
It was a constant struggle. The Bachelors in Computer Applications they were pursuing was demanding; they had to help with housework in addition to the draining commute. “Thak toh jaate hi thay,” Pooja recalls.
The two sisters could take private buses, but that would mean shelling out Rs. 140 extra per day on the fares.
My father works at the electricity board for a salary of Rs. 20,000. How will he manage if he spends all that on us? We don’t want to burden our parents.
— Pooja to The Quint
Not that the accused youths had it much easier. Kuldeep and Deepak, students of History at Jat Memorial and Mohit, from NRS college, also traveled 17 kilometres daily from their village Aasan to Rohtak.
The boys would leave home at 8 am and returned at 1.30 pm – both peak rush hours when buses are filled with students.
None could afford private transport. While Kuldeep’s father is a retired Havaldar from the Indian Army, Deepak’s father is a farmer and Mohit’s parents run a grocery store in the village.
Travelling long distances to Rohtak it turns out, is the rule not the exception.
Travelling Punishing Distances to College
A three-kilometre-long stretch from the Delhi bypass roundabout to Ambedkar Chowk in the heart of Rohtak city is lined with at least six important educational institutions: Baba Mastnath University, Maharishi Dayanand University (MDU) campus, Jat Memorial College, NRS Government College, IC Women’s Government College and the private CR Institute of Law.
Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences is also close by.
On the morning of July 9, the road was teeming with students accompanied by their parents and friends. The second cut-off list for most colleges was to be out that noon and thousands of aspirants hoped to make it to a course of their choice.
Poornima, who had travelled from Bagheta village to admission to a BSc degree course, looked tense. If she didn’t get a seat in IC Women’s College even with her 72 percent in Class 12, she would have to go to a private college.
As it is, the 19-year old would have to travel almost 30 kilometres every day, from her village to Rohtak and back.
It’s tough for her to get admission to a hostel given her low percentage marks. The Paying Guest rooms here are too expensive. Also, buses and tempos are the only option and she will have to adjust if she wants to study.
— Poornima, Student, IC Women’s College
Poornima is not alone. Over the last few years, Rohtak has become an educational hub for a large number of students from far-flung villages, who, with little or no avenues for higher education, are forced to travel to bigger towns.
Dr Lakshmi Beniwal, Principal of IC Women’s College, confirms that at least 60 percent of the total students are daily commuters. “Some live in college hostels, while a number of others stay as Paying Guests or in rented rooms that have mushroomed in Model Town, Dev Colony and other localities. Others, like one group of four from Sanpla village, come together in a Tata Nano. But the majority cannot afford such things. They have to take buses and local transport to reach college.”
For “safety purposes”, the government is running all-women’s buses on most routes, and “pink autos” run by women are now available for women, Beniwal adds. “Though it is not correct to isolate the girl students, this is required for their safety right now.”
The story is the same at NRS and Jat Memorial colleges: both receive applications three-four times the allotted number of seats.
NRS, for example, has received over 15,000 applications this year for just 2600 seats. Most of those applying live in rural parts of the state. The college has one girls’ hostel and two boys’ hostels. “Since we offer a number of scholarships, meritorious students from lower economic backgrounds prefer to study here. At least 3,500 bus passes are issued each year,” Principal Ved Prakash Sheoran says.
Critical Shortage of Buses
What this means is that Rohtak gets well over 16,000 student commuters daily – a figure Sheoran believes the Transport Department is not even remotely equipped to deal with.
Graphic: Haryana State Transport Department
According to Om Prakash Bishnoi, the General Manager of Roadways for Rohtak, there is a severe shortage of buses and staff.
When we don’t have drivers and conductors, what will we do with the buses? The student pass is free for girls up to 60 km. So, there is an incentive for them to use the state transport system. We have to provide at least 50-60 buses on the long route to Delhi, Hisar and several other places. So, how can we accommodate all the students, whose number soars during the peak morning hours?
–Om Prakash Bishnoi to The Quint
Joginder Balhara, who was the Transport Union Pradhan when the bus-slapping incident took place tells The Quint that only seven-eight buses are deployed on the route on which both the “Rohtak sisters” and the accused live.
Balhara says buses carry almost two-three times more passengers than the capacity. “During rush hour - from 7 am-8.30 am and 1.30 pm-2 pm – students are seated even on rooftops.” Labh Singh, the hapless bus conductor who was suspended for “failing” to protect the girls from the alleged harassment told this reporter seven months ago, “four passengers routinely sit on the seats meant for three and three passengers adjust on the seats meant for two. Passengers also sit on roof-tops. There is no other way we can accommodate so many.”
The state administration started a women-only bus service that makes five runs a day, but that frequency has gone down “ever since the new government took over” students say.
The number of women’s buses has also reduced in the past year.
There are at least 10 major villages on the Rohtak Sonepat route; Assan, Kansala, Garhi, Sisana, Kharkhauda, Thana Khurd to name a few.
Sapna, a final year B.Com student from Deegal village, boards the 8 am women’s bus daily. Classes begin at 9 am and buses are on time in the mornings. It is the afternoons, which pose a problem. An hour’s wait at the bus stop is common during post-college hours.
There is a lot of fighting, and abuse in the rush for seats, maybe because everyone is tired after classes and the route is long.
– Sapna to The Quint
Yogesh, who comes to Rohtak daily from Balan – 18 kilometers away – hops on tempos or jeeps as there are no buses on the route. The private vehicles are no better with people “herded in like sheep”.
She often ends up missing her first class because the drivers won’t start without filling up all the seats. “And that takes up to an hour.”
“Most girls attend the college in nearby Kharkhauda village, but for Masters degree courses, however, there is no option but to go to Rohtak or Sonepat. The boys, meanwhile, mainly head for the armed forces.”
There have been calls for increasing the number of buses from everyone from the students to the Pradhans of villages that surround Rohtak. But until that happens, all the simmering tension that the daily grind involves will sometimes boil over. Like it happened with the Rohtak sisters, who, having completed their BCA, are now hoping to be admitted to a masters degree in computer applications.
The boys eventually go out to make a career in the armed forces. But for girls, if transport is poor, how will they go out and study? Is that not actually compromising their careers?
— Yogesh, Student, IC Women’s College
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