(A Survey Result) Women only train carriages can solve women safety issue ? Tokyo, New York and London’s approach and Safety perception !

Can Single-sex train carriages solve women safety issue ?

What do women and Men in Japan think of it ?

How Tokyo, London, New York think differently on this ?

Whats their stance ?

What’s root cause as per them ?

A survey was done in 5 big cities of the world !

A Thomson Reuters Foundation survey of 1,000 female travelers in Tokyo, London, New York City, Cairo and Mexico City found less than half supported women-only sections on trains and buses to boost safety.

What Japanese women think on this ?

But nearly 70 percent of women in Tokyo backed the single-sex carriages introduced in the city in 2000 to combat a phenomenon commonly known as chikan, or groping, on trains.

More than half of women in the Japanese capital said safety was their top transport concern, but seven in 10 were confident they could now travel without sexual harassment or violence.

“You can protect yourself in a women-only car and there is less chance of you being harassed,” Chihiro Asahi, a 22-year-old university student, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation outside the Shibuya train station in downtown Tokyo.

Global Debate !

The policy, however, has prompted protests domestically and debates globally, with experts saying it promotes segregation rather than tackling the root cause.

New York thoughts on it !

But less than 30 percent of women were in favor of women-only carriages in New York and London, where the time and cost of travel were seen as more pressing issues than safety.

“At best, women-only facilities provide only a momentary respite. Segregation does not stop sexual violence,” said Washington, DC-based anti-harassment expert Marty Langelan.

“The ethical response to violence is to stop the aggressors, not segregate the victims,” added the author of “Back Off: How to Confront and Stop Sexual Harassment and Harassers”.

Tokyo has been struggling to stop sexual harassment on trains, where police figures found more than two-thirds of 1,750 groping or molestation cases reported in the city in 2017 took place on trains or in the stations.

Women-only carriages provide female passengers with a “peace of mind”, said a spokeswoman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which runs one of the two main underground networks.

London’s view:

Transport for London (TfL) policy manager Mandy McGregor said there were no plans to introduce single-sex carriages in the British capital despite some public debate.

“What we need to do is focus on the men’s behavior. It’s a minority of men doing this so our focus is on catching them rather than asking women to do something different,” she said.

Criticism by Japanese men !

But the policy has been criticized, including by a group of men who boarded a women-only carriage this year to protest what they called a discriminatory practice, The Japan Times newspaper reported.

False claims & Insurance for such cases from 2015:

Some men have claimed they were falsely accused of groping, putting them at risk of losing their jobs, and sought out protection such as signing up for insurance which offers legal services in such situations.

Shigeya Sugimoto from the Small Amount & Short Term Insurance Association of Japan, an industry group, said there has been a spike in demand for such insurance products since their introduction in 2015.

Source :

What’s your view on this ? How should it be there in Indian context too ?