Am on a DC #fairshot Circulator bus as I type this. If you are in DC do take any one of these buses for FREE. You can get around the city centre for free on any of these. A wonderful initiative started by Mayor Muriel Bowser in the month of March to help working people especially young people with huge student loans have more disposable income and encourage them to take public transport. This scheme has been well received and is now extended indefinitely.
When Mr Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, announced his initiative for free bus and metro rides for women in Delhi there was much brouhaha from a lot of privileged people. Most of them take cabs and ubers or drive private cars adding to the massive pollution hell of Delhi. I wrote my thoughts in an article for SheThePeople where I explain why I thought this initiative is a good one. I believe we need out of the box thinking to solve complex social and urban problems and not the same old same old.
How does the initiative impact women’s safety? Many people don’t seem to make the connection. Clearly they don’t hear the comments when girls from Delhi visit Bombay and feel “safe”. Or they don’t understand that more women in public spaces clearly reduces the risk and perception of being unsafe. By having them around in sheer numbers by itself reduces crime. Urban planners and designers are rethinking urban design to get more women out in public spaces. Ofcourse the government still has to invest in security and policing. Free rides does not by any means substitute security. Rather it facilitates it.
Sustainability of the planet. We don’t need more cars but more public transport. Invest in buses and trains and metros. Mass transit. One guy on my Twitter TL actually said something to the effect of where’s the space for the “additional women”. The real crux of the issue is not the perceived freebies but sharing space with people from lower income. We are a classist society but won’t admit it. Also to those arguing that buses are already crowded and more women will put a strain on it, then we just need to increase the fleet size. That is easily fixed.
Women empowerment. What really does it mean? We love throwing these 2 words around without actually wanting to put in the sweat and tears to make it happen. The sad reality is that in India, women’s participation in the formal labour force is declining. We are punching below our economic weight. Getting more women out into the workforce will actually add as much as 770 billion $ to the GDP (acc to McKinsey). So technically the free transport should pay for itself.
Why not give a chance to this initiative and hold the Delhi government accountable in putting forward an effective policy? They have done it in Health and Education and even tried to address the traffic problem contributing to the pollution. Or are we afraid that they will actually succeed?
Finally save your rage for the insane amounts the current government spends on marketing of its scheme and on its election spending.
