Proposal Argument-Should we have Female-only carriage in Hong Kong
Cheung Yuen Chun Chaumet (53560883)
On 12
October 2012, Cantonese
pop singer and actress Juju Chan reported to the police that she was being
sexually harassed while exiting the train at Admiralty. Later on, she submitted
a letter to the MTR Corporation and requested for the establishment of
female-only carriages on trains in Hong Kong. She explained that the reason why
of requesting to have female-only carriages is to avoid these incidents from
happening to other female passengers again and to protect women from being
groped. Although the proposal has been rejected by the MTR Corporation, it has
aroused people’s attention on whether female-only carriages should really be
set up on trains in Hong Kong.
Actually the number of sexual harassment cases
on trains in Hong Kong has been increasing drastically among these years. According
to Ip (2013), in year 2007, there were 121 cases, then in year 2010, the number
rose to 151 cases. In year 2011, the number of cases increased to 167. And last
year, the number of sexual harassment cases further increased by 30 cases, up
to 197 cases. (Ip. K. 2013. Youtube) From the above statistics, we can see that
the problem of women getting sexually harassed on trains is becoming more and
more serious, not to mention that there are still many women who have been
sexually harassed on trains have not reported to the police. Indeed, the
female-only carriages are very popular among the world, there are eleven
countries which have also implemented these kind of carriages and one of the
examples is Japan. According to Ip (2013), in Japan, before the implementation
of female-only carriages, the Midosuji Line had 54 number of cases of sexual
harassment during rush hours but after the launching of female-only carriages,
the number of cases decreased to 28. As for Keihan Main Line, before the
introduction of female-only carriages, there were 38 number of cases; however,
after that, there were just 24 number of cases. These figures can significantly
shows the difference in the number of cases before and after the implementation
of female-only carriages. (Ip. K. 2013. Youtube)
It may seem that having female-only carriages is a good way to protect
female passengers; however, there are also drawbacks of introducing female-only
carriages in Hong Kong. According to Chan (2013), first, some people may argue
that forcing the male passengers to enter some assigned compartments will be
seen as a deprivation of human rights as well as discrimination. Those men are
being stereotyped as to be threating to the female’s safety, thus they are
prohibited in entering the female-only carriages, which impairs the right and
freedom of the men who are not tending to commit sexual harassment on trains. (Chan,
2013, The Launch Of Female-only
Compartments In MTR In Hong Kong) According to Mitsutoshi Horii and Adam Burgess (2012), once
you are a woman, you can enjoy the special rights in entering more of the compartments
than the men do merely because you are in female identity. As a result, the
implementation of female-only carriages is thought to be sex discrimination
against men as they cannot enjoy the same rights as the women do. Furthermore,
people claimed that sometimes not only female passengers being sexually
harassed, male passengers also get harassed by both male and female, once a
again this leads to the problem of gender inequality and stereotyping. (Mitsutoshi.H.
& Burgess.A. (2012), Constructing Sexual Risk: ‘Chikan’, Collapsing Male
Authority and the Emergence of Women-only Train carriages In Japan)
Notwithstanding that there are really some negative effects on
introducing the female-only carriages in Hong Kong, the situation of women
getting groped by men is worsening and apparently something has to be done in
order to tackle this problem.
The first solution to this problem is to introduce more CCTVs on trains.
This requires more workers to do the security job and look at the screens in
the central office and see who are trying to commit crimes on trains. On the
other hand, if we think thoroughly, this may not be a perfect solution as it
has its own limitations, which is, the CCTVs can only see the head of the
passengers but not the bottom part of the passengers. For most of the time
during rush hours, women’s lower part of the body is always easily getting
sexually harassed by men, so the CCTVs just cannot capture the whole picture
and it is useless to make use of CCTVs to help safeguard female passengers’
safety.
The second solution is to increase the penalties against men who sexually
harass female passengers. By increasing penalties, it must have some deterrent
effect on those who are trying to commit sexual crimes. However, there must be
some exceptional cases. Some people who have psychologica problems will think
that it is very exciting to commit crimes under severe penalties. So they will
take it as a challenge and will still try to commit crimes. As a result, this
is also not a very pragmatic solution.
For the third one, it is a long term solution. I think
education and advertising is unconditionally important. For education, schools
should teach students to know how to protect themselves when they are being
sexually harassed. The earlier the schools start to teach students, the smarter
for them to know how to protect themselves from being harmed. Thus education
should be started as soon as possible. As for advertising, the MTR Corporation
should encourage the passengers to speak out against sexual harassment when they
have witnessed or experienced. As mention above, many people who have been
sexually harassed are not brave enough to shout for help and this will foster
the criminals’ courage in attempting the same thing next time. So people should
always remember to shout for help when they are being sexually harassed.
However, we all know that education needs a very long period to complete, thus,
it also cannot resolve the problem.
For the fourth solution, which I think is the
most effective way to solve the problem of women getting sexually harassed on
trains, is the implementation of female-only carriages in Hong Kong. I do think
it is the best solution among the all, and it can really help to decrease the
number of sexual harassment cases as it has already being proofed by Japan.
Although some people pointed out that as there are just a few female-only
carriages on each train, there is still a bunch of female who cannot get into
those compartments, hence they need to resort to those normal compartments.
Consequently, this increases their chances of getting groped by male
passengers. Therefore, I suggest that the MTR Corporation should introduce more female-only
carriages in order to meet the demand. The MTR Corporation can take Japan’s female
carriage as reference, like using the middle carriages as female-only carriages
and it is merely during the rush hours, like 0700 to 0900 in the morning and
1900 to midnight.
To conclude, everything does have its pros and
cons, just like implementing the female-only carriages in Hong Kong also does.
However, after a thorough consideration, I do think that its advantages
outweigh the disadvantages as many of the other countries have already proofed
that it is effective in lowering the crime rate.
References:
Chan
(2013). The Launch Of Female-only
Compartments In MTR In Hong Kong. Retrieved
November 26, 2013 from http://hklawblog.com/2013/10/09/the-launch-of-female-only-
Mitsutoshi.H.
& Burgess.H. (2012). Constructing Sexual Risk: ‘Chikan’, Collapsing Male
Authority And The
Emergence Of Women-only Train carriages In
Japan. In Health, Risk & Society,14(1).
Retrieved
November 26, 2013 from
Samtani.
R. (2012). MTR Corporation Rejects Female-only Carriage Proposal.
Retrieved November 26,
Sung.
V. (2012). MTR Right To Reject
Women-only Cars. Retrieved November 26, 2013 from
Hi I am Chris :)
ReplyDeletei like your essay and i am interested to your topic!
This is really an interesting discussion topic. Personally as a female, I strongly request the implementation of female-only carriage in Hong Kong since this can provide a better protection to woman in the most direct and effective way.
ReplyDelete(Yu Yaoxiong, Harry, 53577619) It is the very hot topic of recent years. However, I am very disappointed of not being implementing of this policy. Although, I am a man, I strongly support to have female-only carriage in Hong Kong as it is very effective to help to avoid some misunderstanding. Hopes that there will be a female-only carriage very soon.
ReplyDeleteSad but true, though hong kong is such a civilised metropolitan, unfairness to women does exist. Women have always be seen as weak, fragile and dependent. Men, on one hand, can protect female with their physical strength, they can, on the other hand, deliberately do harm to women. Like cases in India, women are constantly raped.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, education can indeed help, but it does not ensure a crime-free city. Not all people can receive education, at least tertiary education. Also, even well-bred people do vice things. People rob or steal because they are destitute. But for sexual offenders, they can have every reason to commit the crime. We heard a lot from the news that university professor sexually harasses a girl, or professional accountant rapes an random lady. Education can't completely correct peoples' distorted mindset. Plus, it takes a long time to work.
I, therefore, suggest the enforcement of laws. It gives a clear guidance to what is right and what is wrong. It punishes the wrongdoers, compensate the victims. It acts also as the deference to potential offenders.
by Chiu Ko Shong, Karen. SID 53555640