At a parking lot in Sector 17, Chandigarh. (Express photo)
As many as 236 complaints of misbehaviour with women parking attendants were reported in a span of seven days, an internal survey conducted by the company managing Chandigarh’s public parking spaces has found.
The misbehaviour included lewd comments at attendants and abuses. Several attendants complained that they faced vulgar comments from men when they asked for the parking fee.
However, no case of physical assault was reported. Some women attendants faced misbehaviour more than once a day. There are a total of 175 women attendants managing the parking lots.
The survey is being conducted weekly. The first report was turned in on Monday. The details pertain to the period from July 16 to July 22. The maximum number of 35 complaints was reported from Sahib Singh parking lot of Sector 17, followed by 23 cases at the parking lot opposite Sector 17 bus stand.
Sandeep Bhora, project coordinator of the Arya Toll Infra Limited, the company running the parking lots, said, “Finding women soft target, there are some people who want to go without paying and when the women attendants ask for parking fee, they start misbehaving and hurl abuses. There are some regular male visitors to the parking lot as well who pass vulgar comments while going out. We take feedback every evening from the women attendants and record the complaints internally.”
The survey is conducted by 39 senior women supervisors.
“Before any mishap takes place, we want the women attendants to report to us. Their safety is highly important. We thought Chandigarh is a safe city but it is disappointing that such issues are coming to light,” Bhora added.
There were 21 complaints of misbehaviour with the women attendants at the parking lot of Kiran Cinema in Sector 22, followed by 16 complaints at the parking lot outside Elante mall.
The company has finalised the services of women bouncers but is of the view that it needs the help of Chandigarh Police. “We are designing a training module for the women attendants so that they could be taught some self-defence techniques. This survey will help us in taking up the key issues which they face and how to deal with them. At present, they are just ignoring the comments or keeping mum over the misbehaviour,” another official of the company added.
Municipal Commissioner Baldeo Purushartha said, “It [the misbehaviour] has not come to my notice. Let me look into it.”
