Locked and stinking: Women's waiting lounges at BMTC bus stations

Women’s waiting rooms at major BMTC bus terminals lacked hygiene and some basic facilities, raising questions if they really served the purpose of providing safety and comfort to women commuters.

Built under the Centre’s Nirbhaya Fund, the waiting rooms at Yeshwantpur and Majestic bus stations are in need of attention, at a time when the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) is considering building similar structures in four bus stations.

DH visited the waiting lounges at Yeshwantpur and Majestic bus station on Tuesday to assess the facilities. The lounge at Yeshwantpur TTMC lacked facilities and the rooms were filled with oil cans and disinfectants. While the toilets stunk, the lounge did not have something so basic as a dustbin.

Surprisingly, men milled around the lounge at the Majestic bus station which was locked despite women commuters using the station in large numbers on a daily basis. No information of the bus schedule was found at the lounge and no security personnel were posted.

Security personnel at the station told the reporter that the lounge was opened only on request, directing the reporter to the first-aid centre.

“We have locked up the lounge to avoid possible misuse and open it up if any pregnant woman and lactating mothers demand,” said a senior official at the BMTC ‘s first aid centre.

Men squatted near the lounge’s entrance. One of them said: “This has been locked for several months. We sit here to rest for some time.”

When DH later informed the lapses and sought a response from the BMTC’s Managing Director C Shikha, authorities swung into action to fix the issues.

She said the washroom and the change room were cleaned up at Yeshwantpur TTMC, while a security guard was deployed at the Majestic bus lounge.