Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and recently, Telangana and Andhra pradesh have made it free for the women to travel in buses operated as part of Public Transport. As per the world bank report Women are the most significant, the largest number users of public transport in India,
Women consider choosing the slower means of transport since it is affordable rather than choosing the fastest means of transport. This deters them from stepping out in the first place but the whole debate of Free bus scheme for women divided between as it is a freebie are vote Bank scheme but no one is talking about how can govt effectively implement scheme ? are how can govt measure success of the scheme ?,so let's look into what a NGO in Tamil Nadu did to measure the success of free bus scheme ? and what other states should learn from It .
How NGO In TN Measured The Success of Free Bus Scheme ?
Citizen consumer and civil action group surveyed about 3000 women's across 6 cities(urban & rural)in TN to understand the impact of free bus scheme
Study found
1)Women are saving ₹600 to ₹800 per month as the result of the scheme and savings are invested in welfare of family.
2) Scheme also changed the way women access to transport, and travel experience also changed .
3) savings are routed towards reduction in debts by 45% (on an average) .
4) scheme made Job finding easy for women mostly in rural areas .
5) scheme saved time for travel mostly in Urban areas .
6)Most Important Finding of The Study Was The State exchequer is not really losing money its actually transfering money(savings)from one hand to other entity of state .
7) Women who complete work at 10PM are more satisfied with this scheme .
This are The Important Findings of Study so
What other State's(which implement free bus scheme ) should learn from this NGO ?
1)Evidence Based Administration
A Evidence based administration means tracking the effectiveness of the scheme by countinous monitoring & tracking of beneficiaries experience and acting upon defects with in less time ,this could be done by countinous social auditing with different methods like (randomized clinical trails) by establishing Research units all over state to track and take proper action.
What kind of Evidence Based administrative &Social audits should state undergo ?
1)Female labour force participation ratio
Measure of female labour force participation in economy before and after free bus scheme this shows how this schme will contribute to female particpation in economy .
2)Income & Education Levels
Measure of Income & education levels of women in rural & urban areas before & after free Bus scheme Should be measured to track the succes of the scheme
3)Reliable & Faster, Safer ,Easy Mobility
Measure of Reliability of travel and frequency of buses and safety of women in travel and effective traffic management which eases and reduce the traveling time should be done to make scheme successful, and also study stated that most of women who are physically handicapped are not able to access free bus due to no proper PHD friendly infrastructure .
4)Measure of Crime rate&sexual violence
All of us are aware of sexual violence against women most of the sexual acts on women takes place outside of the house mainly while transporting so there should be audit on reduction of crime on women before & after free bus scheme .
5)Audit on Pollution
A comprehensive audit on number of women traveling in bus and Percapita road occupation ratio (no:- of passengers travel per vehicle is called road occupation ratio) so if more number of women uses public transport like bus there will be reduction in pollution level in cities and audit on before and after free bus scheme implementation will gives us clear picture .
6) RTC Managment
RTC is managing head of the routes by making an audit of busy routes ,RTC should start rationalizing routes and should increase frequency of buses with cleanliness and Good vehicle health( this is the major complaint that NGO received when conducting study On free bus in Tamil Nadu)
This are the key factors under evidence based administration to make free bus scheme
But what about criticism on the scheme ?
1)Why should those who can afford be allowed to travel for free?
There are various reasons why this measure specifically cannot be restricted to a certain section of women that could be identified via their socio-economic status. When such identification of beneficiaries is done- not only identification is inadequate in recognising those women who might need that particular measure at a point of time, but also results in a division of beneficiaries into those who benefit from the government’s scheme and those who are paying for such governments scheme. This happens with the Public Distribution Scheme where the non-beneficiaries portray themselves as those who are paying for some charity for those who are getting food grains at affordable prices. This portrayal takes away the dignity the schemes seek to provide. Moreover, restrictions on physical mobility are a common feature of society, irrespective of whether the woman belongs to a poor family or not. There are women in wealthy families who must ask the head of the family for any and all expenses, and women in poor families who do not have the money to travel for their higher education. The problem is systemic and universal; therefore, the solution also has to be universal.
What about Rickshaw drivers and their Livelihood?
This has become troublesome for rickshaw operators who, at times, do not even own the rickshaw they operate. It is here that the government has to proactively manage the losses caused to Auto Rickshaw drivers. It could by giving them a beneficial sum of money per year, or constituting separate mechanism to look into how the costs of Auto Rickshaw drivers can be decreased.
Pressure On RTC & State Exchequer?
Many don't know about The Price(or)money RTC paying for free tickets are compensated by the State , so ultimately the pressure on the state as I earlier mention money which is saved by omen under free bus scheme was been used at other govt entity(most of the case ) but offcourse there is much more to do to compensate the lose .
As McKinsey report stated that free female transportation will contribute for increase in GDP , many foreign countries like Germany moving towards it and Luxemburg in 2020 made public transport free , Some services, such as Melbourne's City Circle Tram, are completely free! In Sydney ,future travel is not distance based but time based (which amplify economy ) on the same lane Indian states should implement Free bus scheme to include women into work force and minimizing drawbacks by using evidence based administration which in turn increase employment of country and make GDP stronger.
CH.J.V.K.S.SWAROOP
