Damsels banned in driver’s cabin in western Nepal

Kathmandu – Damsels sitting in the driver’s cabin divert the concentration of the man in charge of the steering wheel and lead to road accidents.

The bus entrepreneurs in western hill of Nepal have arrived at this conclusion and asked the staff of its long route buses to not allow young women in its passenger bus cabins.

However, the decision has drawn criticism from some quarters terming it as a discrimination against women. They said the committee wrongly believed that the women were behind the road accidents.

In a bid to minimise the rising cases of road accidents, the bus entrepreneurs of the region, from where the Maoists launched their armed conflict in 1996, have banned young female passengers from sitting inside the driver’s cabin of the buses plying on the long routes.

Claiming that the presence of women inside the cabins diverts the attention of male drivers, the local committee of the bus entrepreneurs decided to prohibit the female passengers from occupying the cabin seats.

The committee said that most of the accidents had taken place when the drivers’ attention was distracted by beautiful damsels sitting next to them.

The committee claimed that as the presence of opposite sex easily distracts the attention of a human being; it decided to implement this regulation in more than 500 buses operating under it.

Chairperson of the committee Jitendra Bahadur Shah said on the basis of the findings of its study and the public complaints, the committee concluded that presence of a young woman was the major reason for the increasing bus accidents, in which several passengers got killed or injured.

“Thus, the young girls are restricted from occupying the driver’s cabin,” added Shah.

The decision was made to promote safe journey of both passengers and the drivers, he said.

He said though the decision was made some four months ago, the regulation was implemented recently.

Shah said that the committee had already informed the ticket booking counters about the new regulation.

Accountant of the committee Dr. Lok Raj Parajuli said that the committee instructed the drivers to abide by the regulation.

“The committee will conduct regular monitoring in the buses,” Shah said.

Parajuli who had conducted a study on the road accidents said many road accidents were found to have caused due to the above mentioned reasons.