Sexual Harassment Cases Rise, Transjakarta Bus Passengers Asked To Dare To Report Officers

Illustration of a TransJakarta bus/ Doc. VOI

JAKARTA - With the rise of sexual harassment on Transjakarta buses, Director of Operations and Safety of PT Transport Jakarta, Yoga Adiwinarto, asked victims or witnesses to dare to report to the officers if they found any acts of sexual harassment.

"We must have the courage to speak up when there are other customers who may be harassed, we must have the courage to help and if we become victims (of sexual harassment) we must have the courage to report it," said Yoga during a campaign entitled Stop Sexual Harassment at the Harmoni Busway Stop, Gambir, Friday, August 5th.

To prevent sexual crimes on Transjakarta buses, said Yoga, his staff will add officers who will be tasked with supervising sexual offenders on Transjakarta buses and at busway stops.

Yoga said that PT Transportation Jakarta also opened a standby line or hotline service that was available for 24 hours.

"Transjakarta has now opened a hotline channel 1500 102 and we are committed to continuing to oversee this reporting process to the authorities," he said.

In addition, he claimed that Transjakarta officers were quick to handle and supervise.

"We will also add more officers on buses and at bus stops. The officers have also started to oversee the prevention of sexual harassment," he said.

Previously, allegations of sexual harassment occurred again in public transportation and this time it was located on one of the TransJakarta buses. Perpetrators take advantage of the momentum of densely packed vehicles to carry out their actions.

The video uploaded to the Instagram account @lensa_berita_jakarta, shows the atmosphere inside the Transjakarta bus which is full of passengers.

The camera caught someone's finger playing between the legs of a passenger. By taking advantage of the density of people, the perpetrator used his hand to feel the thigh of another passenger nearby.

"It is suspected that another act of harassment occurred on the Transjakarta Bus route 3F (Kalideres-GBK), Monday, July 25, 2022," wrote @lensa_berita_jakarta as the caption for his upload.

In the video, the suspect's hand seems to be trying to touch the victim's thigh from behind. But he acted as if he accidentally touched it due to the shaking on the bus and the crowded conditions of the passengers.

The victim then got off at the Senayan Roundabout Stop and immediately reported the alleged sexual harassment experienced to the officers. The perpetrator was also said to have been arrested but he still argued. Meanwhile, the abuse experienced is said to have traumatized the victim.