Gender-geography equation can change with free transport

It was high time that India’s cities had the debate over fare-free public transport and zero-fare public transport and how it fits into the larger framework of urbanisation. Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal kick-started it this week when he declared that the city’s bus and Metro networks would offer women fare-free transport.

Kejriwal linked it to women’s safety, which in Delhi especially, is an urgent and emotive issue. If this plan goes through, it could fundamentally transform the way our public transport is viewed and used.

This isn’t a fits-all-sizes kind of a plan. So there have been, broadly speaking, three kinds of reactions. The first, mostly from supporters or sympathisers of Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), who hailed it as a landmark move.

The second set, the selective subsidies brigade, protested that women do not need such freebies and lamented the “waste of public money”. That the lamentations were more for the Metro than bus network revealed the underlying class bias. Some well-off women said it dealt a blow to feminism. They conflated issues, those who can afford can continue to pay.

The third group, sceptical but welcoming the plan, understood the relation between fare-free public transport and safety – it would bring more women into the public transport, more women meant greater safety – but questioned its implementation.

The Delhi government does not have the nuts and bolts in place yet. Kejriwal said his government plans to introduce it in the next three months, that departments concerned were to work out modalities in a week, that the plan would have to be cleared by the Delhi cabinet and the subsidy approved by the legislature. Its operation was expected to cost his government ₹700-800 crore this year.

In the context of urban public transport, this is a step in the right direction. It offers mobility to women – and therefore families who need every ₹20 and ₹30 they can save, it would bring more women into public spaces, drive up the low rate of women’s participation in workforce, encourage higher use of public transport, and create a more equitable sharing of public resources.

The free-fare plan is likely to have many takers not only in Delhi but in other metro cities including Mumbai, if it is introduced. The BEST data shows that ridership fell after it raised the price of the daily pass, allowing unlimited travel on any route, from ₹40 to ₹60 and ₹90.

Anecdotally, women and senior citizens who said they used the affordable facility to meet relatives, go shopping, and generally be out in public spaces could not afford the increased fare.

The Delhi plan has challenges of implementation – how will it be limited to the city when transport networks cover the larger National Capital Region, how to prevent misuse, how to segregate women commuters into paying and non-paying categories, what about men who could use the subsidy – but it goes beyond these immediate concerns.

It brings in a fundamental structural shift in how a city views its women and their use of public spaces, their participation in public life. Roughly half a city’s population comprises women. A section of them may not need the fare-free public transport but for a large majority it could mean liberation in many ways – freedom to travel, ability to use modern and classy system like the Metro, continue higher education, decide to work and become financially self-sufficient, even just claim public spaces and loiter around in the city.

In itself, the plan may not ensure women’s safety. This comes from enhanced policing, better street planning and lighting, and last-mile connectivity which would mean safe roads from bus stops and Metro stations to homes and offices. The Delhi plan does not immediately address these issues but they could follow.

Cities around the world have adopted fare-free public transport though not on a scale like Delhi or Mumbai. Such plans evolve and are course-corrected as they are implemented. There is no perfect plan, ever. It’s facile to dismiss Kejriwal as a populist and the plan as a poll gimmick. But a city must begin somewhere.

This plan lies at the intersection of gender and geography, and could fundamentally change both for the better. Who would have a bone to pick with that? When is Mumbai getting its version?

First Published: Jun 06, 2019 00:15 IST