Reserved For Ladies???

One thing that amuses me most when I get on a DTC/BEST bus or stand in a queue in some government office is “Ladies seat and Ladies Queue”. I fail to understand, why women need these special arrangements. Since time immemorial I am hearing from various medium and I still do, that women are not a weaker sex, they can compete with men in any and every field and are in no way lesser than them, but I am very surprised to see that for doing so they need a reserved seat and a separate queue. I am not at all in favor of seat reservation for women in public transport as well as a separate queue for them at any public dealing window. Some women purist may call me narrow minded or women oppressor, but I am none, by keeping a reserved seat and a separate queue they are doing more harm to themselves than any one else. I normally see that apart from some ladies seats in the bus, the other reserved seats are for elderly or for physically handicap people. What I make out of this is, that women wants to have rights equal to these people, who have special needs and are in constant need of some help. If that is the case than I am sorry to say that all this talk of women’s liberation is a big farce. I am very sure that if I ask any self dependant women today that whether she considers herself helpless or in need of some special attention or treatment the answer will be a big no, what I fail to understand is that than why the same women don’t raise their voice against these so called special privileges given to them. I personally feel that the reserved seats and separate queues are a symbol of inferiority, and any self respecting person won’t be willing to look at these symbols again and again. In our society, any symbol which shows any religion in a bad light is severely dealt with in the form of rioting, arson even merciless killing of people. But these symbols of inferiority which we see daily at the various places are ignored completely. There can be many reasons for that, one could be that women like to have these facilities available because they want to have a seat whenever they board a bus or it can be that they are still in a mode where they feel that to survive in this “male dominated world” they need to have some special privileges handy, which will make their struggle against male dominance easy. Their may be another reason also, they would feel much safer and secure to sit in a crowded bus and stand in a separate queue to be away from a groping hand. I think the last reason is more acceptable, but still I have my reservations on this, if it’s really an era of women liberation then why don’t they raise their voice or a sandal against these lechers. I once witnessed this, a girl beating up a guy with sandal in a crowded bus; it was a very amusing and reassuring sight. I can bet, that guy will think one thousand times before eve teasing. The best part of this whole idea is that, to raise a sandal against these teasers, you don’t need reservation. I am very sure that women should be encouraged to get ahead in the various fields, but not in a separate line or a reserved seat, but along with the main line sitting next to a man.