Whistles distributed in Mexico City’s metro in hopes of curbing sexual harassment

MEXICO CITY - The Mexico City government on Tuesday began distributing at local metro stations whistles aimed at halting the harassment of women on public transportation.

The first batch of 15,000 whistles for the pilot program are being distributed at six metro stations.

The high demand has exceeded the expectations on the first day of the program, when authorities had expected to distribute 150 whistles per station.

However, one of the officials in charge of the project at the Balderas station said that shortly after midday a total of 504 whistles had been passed out.

In the station, located on heavily traveled Line 1, passengers of all ages since Tuesday morning have been forming lines to get whistles, although they first must show official identification and fill out a personal data form.

Carla, a student who saw what was going on, asked for a whistle and either she or her mother will use it. "Let's see how it works," she commented to EFE, adding that she had suffered harassment on the metro when "they want to push against you."

Another user, Clementina, a housewife, never goes onto the metro without a whistle because "although you might be rather big, there's always someone who wants to abuse you."

Approaching the tables where the whistles are being passed out are also a considerable number of men. One of them, Victor, told EFE that he asked for one to give to his wife, so that she'll feel more secure when she uses the metro with their children.

"I say it's a good idea, because I've seen how most men act like smarty-pants with women," he said.

Despite the good response by metro travelers, there are still those who say that they don't believe the whistles will work to stop harassment "but thanks anyway," or who joke that "it would be better if they gave us a baseball bat."