Women's being sexualy harrased while doing their daily activities using Commuter Line Train (KRL)
Sexual Harassment to women is a common
case in the public. There are kinds of Sexual Harasment that occur in
Indonesia, such as “Cat Call” where usually happens when there is a women who
walks by and being flirted by some random man. And also rape of children.
The public seems to know this issue
for a very long time, but they seem to chose to not worry about it that much.
But recently, people are starting to
pay attention to this issue. Even the public looks increasingly angry with the
emergence of the story of one of the witnesses of sexual harassment in the
Commuter Line Train , or mostly known as KRL in Indonesia.
KRL is known as a very conventional
public transport. People choose KRL for their daily activities because they don’t
have to have some rough time on the road while driving their own car or
motorcycle. But KRL is also very dangerous because it’s so crowded. It can
trigger some criminalities to happen inside the KRL, such as pickpocketing and
sexual harrasment.
The story that shared on social media,
LINE, by Chrisna gets so many responses in a very short time. There are people
who supports, and some even tell their personal experiences when abused in KRL.
This story becomes increasingly fells
'horror' when it is known that most sexual harassment is done by the SAME
person. Because there is an evidence of photo captured by Chrisna when she
witnessed the incident. So many respondents also admitted that they had been
harassed by that person.
Quoted from a website, kumparan.com, Chrisna wrote in her LINE
account, "When the train went toward the University of Pancasila, there was
a woman who was so plump, standing in
front of the perpetrator. Lets just call him ‘Cepot’. Now this ‘cepot’
initially just touch his own penis towards the woman and maybe that woman starts
to feel annoyed and all she can do is move to another place inside the KRL
"
This can lead to a decrease in
people's sense of comfort to KRL. As feared by Dani (21), one of the KRL users
we interviewed at Rawa Buntu train station, South Tangerang (25/5/2017).
He said, "If this (sexual
harassment) happens frequently, the public would feel uncomfortable and I’m
afraid they start to get lazy to use KRL." He also believes that one of
the efforts to prevent this incident is for the people themselves who must
increase their self-awareness.
Fear and anxiety continue to
haunt KRL users, especially women. As expressed by Elvida (19), a teenager that
we also interviewed in Rawa Buntu Station. She said, "For me as a woman,
it makes me wary and afraid everytime I use KRL, especially if I go
alone."
She stated, that it might be
better for womens to not to go anywhere with KRL by themselves. Because they
wouldn’t know if the KRL is going to be crowded or not. If the train is
crowded, then there might be chances that the harrasment might hapen.
She also appealed to PT.KAI to
improve the guard in KRL. Although there is already a security guard in KRL,
but the number is limited. And the people in there are not necessarily
courageous to prevent when sexual harassment takes place.
Quoted from news.okezone.com, where the Coordinator of the Division of
Community Participation Komnas Perempuan, Ratna Fitriani, said that efforts to
eliminate sexual harassment in KRL is a bit impossible. Because this incident
comes from the individual parties. Both the perpetrator or the victim.
Therefore, to prevent, Ratna said
"We must do more prevention by not wearing minimal clothing or not dressing
too excessive" she told okezone.
One other effort that has been
done is with the holding of a special wagon only for women. But this effort
does not seem to solve this sexual harrasment problem that much. Because there
are still a lot of women who take the regular wagon. Even recently just appear
a new problem where there was a fight between females fighting for seats in the
women special wagon.
But it seems the public desire to
voice about the case is not too prominent, because based on our survey that we
did. Only about 2 out of 10 people are willing to voice the case, while others
refuse to be interviewed by us.
One of the KRL security guards
whom we met at Palmerah station, Jakarta even claimed not to know much about
this. Because he himself said that if there is (victims of sexual harassment),
they did not report to the KRL security itself.
“I can’t speak much about this (sexual harrasment in KRL)
topic, because it’s not my authority." said the Head Station in Rawa Buntu, while being interviewed in his office.
This case doesn’t only occur in
Indonesia. Other Asian countries like Japan, and China, also have the same case
and still unresolved.
