On December 8, the World Bank launched a “Toolkit on Enabling Gender Responsive Urban Mobility and Public Spaces in India” with the aim of suggesting ways to make public transport in Indian cities more inclusive of women’s travelling requirements.
The toolkit emphasises on the importance of integrating a gender lens in transport policies and infrastructure, making various recommendations on interventions that can help make urban transport safer, especially for women. It brings together 50 case studies of best practices and efforts from across the world, along with a special inculcation of the Indian context.
Poor public transport curtails women’s financial independence and agency
Studies show that women, especially those from lower socio-economic groups, are among the biggest users of public transport in Indian cities. Their dependence on public transport stems from lower discretionary incomes. Further, women have unique mobility patterns, often travelling shorter distances, using multiple modes of transport, and travelling with dependents, during “off-peak hours”.
Currently, urban mobility systems are not catered to these unique needs of women. This can make travel inconvenient, unsafe, and also more expensive for them, putting an additional burden on a section of society which is already disadvantaged. While many women use public transport on a daily basis out of compulsion, the state of public transport systems has a major impact on a variety of decisions made by women.
Studies have shown that lack of safe, inexpensive and reliable public transport has a profound impact on women’s ability to access education and employment opportunities, in turn leading to poorer life outcomes for them. India’s female labour force participation rate is among the lowest in the world, standing at just 30% in 2019-20. Lack of viable urban transport is frequently cited as a major impediment for women to access better employment opportunities.
Studies have also shown how distance from home impacts women’s choice of colleges and other educational institutions — and by implication their financial independence and agency.
Safety, efficiency and cost are major concerns
Lack of safety and also the lack of a perception of safety are a major impediment for women when it comes to accessing public transport. Dearth of good street lighting, no reliable last mile transport, and high waiting time at remote bus stops are just some of the challenges in this regard.
Crucially, beyond being safe, public transport infrastructure also needs to be perceived to be safe, as it is the perception that guides decisions to use such transport. With safety issues turning women away from using public transport, a vicious cycle is created — unsafe transport leads to fewer women travelling out which in turn leads to fewer women out in public spaces which actually make these spaces even more unsafe.
Since the burden of care work (mostly unpaid) lies disproportionately on women, they often need to plan their travel far more meticulously than men, having to juggle various responsibilities at home and work.
For instance, a working mother might have to plan her travel schedule around the school timings of her child and the office timings of her husband. This means that women have a far greater need for public transport to be time-wise reliable and efficient with longer waiting times and delays having a deleterious effect on them.
Women also face higher costs of travelling. This is mainly because of two reasons.
First, women have to stitch together various short commutes to fulfil the many responsibilities they have. For instance, a typical day for a working mother might involve commutes from home to school back to home, then to her place of work, then back to school and back to home. The World Bank recognises this as “trip chaining” and this increases travel costs.
Second, women often also make decisions to use certain kinds of more expensive routes or forms of transport on account of them being perceived to be more safe. For instance, women often take longer routes to travel which are perceived to be more safe, rather than travelling through “unsafe areas”.
All these factors amount together as a “pink tax” that specifically burden women and impede them from making optimal decisions for themselves.
What does the World Bank toolkit suggest?
The World Bank suggests a four-pillared approach to help address prevailing issues in urban transport for women.
First, there has to be greater effort made to understand the on-ground situation with a gender lens. Gender blind planning and infrastructure development leaves major gaps that specifically impact women but are often not overtly visible. The first step to addressing these gaps is to better identify what they are. Any new transport policy or infrastructure development must be preceded by an honest evaluation of issues concerning women.
Second, once prevailing issues are identified, policies and development plans must reflect the concerns of women. For this to happen, there must be more women in key institutions in charge of decision making. Until such time women are not adequately represented, their needs are always likely to be secondary. Thus key to actually inculcating a gender lens in public transport planning and development is involving and giving authority to more women stakeholders in the first place.
Third, the toolkit emphasises on building gender sensitivity and awareness among service providers through mandatory programmes and community action. Everyone from the bus conductor to local beat constables must be aware of concerns that women have and how to address them,
Fourth, investment has to be made in better infrastructure and services with a focus on women-friendly design. While increasing services and strengthening infrastructure is a good idea in general, if such development is made from a specific gender lens, it is far more useful. For example, while creating new bus stops is good, it would be even better if these bus stops were designed to be level with the floors of buses, adequate lighting, SOS buttons, and well-maintained washrooms.
Some concrete interventions that the toolkit suggests include creation of wide obstruction-free footpaths, street lighting, clear signages, dedicated bicycle lanes, introduction of short and circuitous bus routes, and subsidising/making free public transport for women.
Who does this toolkit help?
According to the World Bank, the toolkit contains practical tools that can inform a wide set of policymakers as well as private or community-based organisations. The aim is for this toolkit to be a reference for any entity engaging in any work regarding public transport and urban mobility. Not only does this tool kit provide many practical interventions, it also highlights certain thematic issues that one can encounter in this space.
Crucially, the point of this toolkit is not to make gender an additional concern for policy makers and developers. Rather, it is to integrate a gender lens into everyday planning and development in order to make our cities safer and more accessible to women.
Written by Arjun Sengupta
Source: Indian Express, 10/12/22
