New Delhi: According to a working paper in the World Resources Institute (WRI), India, India, a bus riding scheme for women in the capital helped them save up to 8 percent of their monthly domestic income, improved better education and employment opportunities, and reduced their dependence on family members.
“More than 90 percent of these women (mostly from economically weaker sections) use buses on weekly basis for work, education, care and discretionary activities. Our sample lacks access to one private vehicle in 95 percent of women and rely on buses due to economic obstacles. He said that the FFPT (Rent Free Public Transport) scheme saved up to 8 percent of its domestic income per month, ”said this.
It was released on Thursday, ‘Fair-Free Bus Travel Scheme for Women: Lesson’s from Delhi’ highlighted that the scheme helped women to save women between Rs 500 and Rs 2,300 on monthly transport expenses by benefiting women from mainly low-income groups.
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59 percent of the respondents said that they saved at least Rs 500 per month.
For this study, authors recorded 2,010 female bus users’ reactions in different parts of Delhi. About 58 percent of the respondents were workers, another 22 percent homemaker and 18 percent were college students (retired and employment seekers). About 28 percent belonged to the economically weaker sections.
In addition, the working paper said that about 90 percent of the women conducted the survey, mostly from the low -income families, for the purposes of work, education or care, one of the two women took advantage of the scheme to travel to a destination for less than 10 km.
The FFPT scheme allows women to travel fare-free in all AC and non-AC buses in Delhi, which was introduced by the then Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in October 2019. While Delhi was the first in the country to introduce the scheme, it has since turned into a promise of a staple pole, and has been mentioned in other states in electoral manifesto in Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
In Delhi, this scheme increased the share of women in total bus riders – in 2019, in 2019, from 33 percent to 2023, paper found paper, To hold a large number of women responsible for moving buses in other ways like metro and auto-rickshaws.
Chaitanya Kanari, one of the three co-writer of the Associate Director (Electric Mobility) and Working Paper in Wri India, said on Thursday, “Half of the respondents reported a monthly savings of Rs 500-1,000 on a bus rent, while already the metro was experienced by auto-rickachews or metro.
Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and Delhi Integrated Multi-Model Transit System (DIMTS), on the number of tickets sold every day on the number of tickets sold, which operates the cluster bus service, the authors estimated that the scheme helps women bus taking in Delhi to save a total of 19.6 million “every day.
“The woman is bus ridership up. From May 2023, DTC and DimTS data indicated that more than 21 million pink tickets were issued daily. We guess that this number has exceeded half a million, and that women traveling in buses in Delhi are now saving a total of 19.6 million every day, ”said the working paper.
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‘Women are enabled to use buses for small trips’
About 63 percent of the respondents said that the scheme reduced the amount spent by them, which becomes a major part of domestic expenses.
Before the scheme begins, the paper was found, traveling formed 8 percent of monthly domestic income for women from economically weaker sections (EWS), 4 percent for low income group (LIG) women and 2 percent for women of middle income group (MIG). A large number of women take many short trips for work or personal reasons, including leaving school or taking care of the elderly.
“Given this demographic profile, the fare -free public transport scheme plays an important role in benefiting women passengers. It also enabled them to use buses for short trips, which they may have already avoided due to Delhi’s telescopic rent structure, where the cost per kilometer is less for a short distance and shorter, ”Kanuri said, who co-written the paper with Harshita Jamba and Arvinda Devraj.
In addition, the paper said that, in addition to helping monthly domestic savings, the scheme also opened new economic and education related avenues for women, as they can now easily cover long distances. After the launch of the plan, the paper found, “The share of women making small trips (less than 4 km) from the bus increased by 12 percent and increased by 15 percent of those traveling 4–10 km.”
Referring to the time before the launch of the plan in October 2019, Paper said that women passengers in Delhi had to travel an average of 7.92 km from the bus. Only 18 percent of Delhi’s formal job opportunities were accessible to them only within this distance, it said. “After the launch of the plan, their average travel distance has increased to 10.52 km, allowing them to reach 33 percent of the city’s formal job opportunities.”
Paper said that about 34 percent of the respondents said that the plan improved their dynamics as they were able to travel many more frequent travel for various purposes.
About 23 percent of the respondents said that it reduced their dependence on family members, as it allowed them to travel alone. In addition, about 20 percent of the respondents said that the scheme enabled them to travel further than before.
Discrimination and security: major challenge
On the challenges faced by them, the respondents identified the crowd, in addition to the discriminatory attitude and poor monitoring of the movement of buses.
According to the paper, 54 percent of the respondents reported to make snaide comments and/or discriminatory approach to both bus crew and fellow male passengers.
“These comments, often focused around the use of pink tickets, depicted women as taking advantage of the system instead of legitimately using the services designed for them,” the paper said.
About 20 percent of the respondents stated that drivers often stop buses away from designated stops, especially during peak hours, amidst heavy traffic, or in isolated areas with some women around.
Many people also said that how buses are rarely occurred on time or the frequency is low.
In paper, authors recommended to sensitize employees, improve the overall quality of bus services. He also emphasized the need to collect gender-confused dynamics data for monitoring and evaluation.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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