Pink women's seats in buses are redline for men

In an effort to end the unsavoury practice of men occupying seats designated for women in buses, the BMTC has turned them pink.

The blue covers, marking women's seats in old buses sent for fitness certificate checks, are now being replaced with pink ones. "The new buses will have pink seats for women, while it would be gradually replaced in the old ones," transport minister H M Revanna said recently.

Data available from March 2013 to October 2017 reveals that the transport corporation had collected Rs 60.13 lakh as penalty for occupying women's seats from 60,138 passengers.

While the number of violators touched an all-time high of 25,000 in 2014, it had since begun to fall.

In 2015, the BMTC had fined 15,000 men, while in 2016, it was a meagre 5,500. This year, 2,959 passengers have been caught seated in women's seats in seven months from April.

"We had the grills separating the men's section from women in our old buses, but the pink seats should be enough to draw the line," a BMTC official said.