According to the new amendment to Tamil Nadu’s Motor Vehicles Act, staring, eve teasing and sexually harassing women on any bus can lead to the perpetrators' arrest.
The Act puts any inappropriate behaviour, including whistling, obscene and sexual gestures and eve teasing, that makes a woman on board a bus uncomfortable, punishable offences under the new amendment.
According to the amendment, the bus conductor is responsible for taking a passenger misbehaving with a woman off the bus or hand him over to the police. The Act protects women passengers against the misconduct of conductors as well, who will also be subject to be punished by law.
Not just that, a conductor who inappropriately touches a woman under the pretext of helping her get on or get off the bus will receive punishment too. No sexual jokes or comments will be entertained and remain punishable as per the Act.
The Act holds the conductors on board to be responsible for the safety of female passengers. They are to remove any male passenger who misbehaves with women after a proper enquiry. The conductors are also to maintain a complaint book on which passengers can register complaints if they failed to make the bus a safe ride.
This complaint book can be asked to be produced before an authority if the need arises.