NEW DELHI, July 5 — A young woman’s detailed social media account of alleged harassment during a train journey has circulated widely online, drawing renewed attention to safety concerns for women traveling alone on public transport. According to the woman’s Instagram post, the incident occurred on July 3 while she was traveling from Siwan to Patliputra in the general compartment of a train. She said she had fallen asleep on an upper berth during the journey.
After the train arrived at Chhapra, a group of elderly men took the seats beneath her. She alleged that one of them repeatedly stretched his hand upward and touched her while she was asleep.
“I politely asked him, ‘Uncle, please keep your hand down,’ but he ignored me,” she wrote. “Instead, he started trying to touch me from the front, making me feel extremely uncomfortable.” She claimed the behavior stopped briefly after she confronted him, but then resumed. “After a while, he stopped, and I finally felt a little relieved.
But soon, he started touching me again. I sat up and moved as far away as I could on the berth.
As if that wasn’t enough, another elderly man also reached up and touched me,” she alleged. Unable to endure the situation any longer, the woman said she left the coach and searched for another compartment. Finding it overcrowded, she chose to sit near the entrance outside an AC coach instead.
According to her post, the ordeal continued there as well. She alleged that a young man approached her during that period. The woman’s account has prompted fresh conversations about the safety of women travelling alone on public transport.
“Just imagine the level of discomfort I went through on the train. This is a true incident that happened to me,” she wrote.
