Gender sensitisation test soon for BMTC drivers, conductors

Nearly 27,000 BMTC drivers and conductors will face periodic assessment of their gender sensitisation abilities as part of a programme funded under the Nirbhaya scheme.

The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) is developing a web-based tool to evaluate the level of gender sensitisation its staff have absorbed from events and workshops organised at the depot level.

The transport corporation believes that although its drivers and conductors have an innate understanding of the needs of female passengers, some of them “might need further training and counselling” even after the gender sensitisation workshop.

The BMTC is set to hire an agency to conduct a “simple quiz” that will have a question bank of 250 behavioural questions to assess the staff. “Drivers and conductors will be asked to take the quiz periodically at their respective depots,” says the BMTC’s official document for the programme.

An official said the BMTC had been conducting programmes and workshops at depots to familiarise the staff.

“As the face of the BMTC, our drivers and conductors interact with the public every day. The assessment not only encourages them to learn the rights of women but also the importance of these rights,” he said.

The questions will focus on identifying sexual harassment situations, the rights of the complainants in police stations and the steps needed to be taken to ensure the safe travel of women.

The quiz will have images, videos and audio to make the assessment.

For example, the image of a man sitting on a women’s seat where the staffer has to identify the problem, an animated or actual video of two passengers fighting with two different courses of action of which the conductor has to choose one, etc.

The staff will take the quiz every three months by using the unique identity number given to them. If all goes well, the assessment will take off in the next three months. The BMTC plans to scale up the platform to include assessment of 37,000 employees.