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April 21, 2024 12:32 am | Updated 12:45 pm IST
Most of the women are positive about the scheme, which helped them save money and created a situation conducive to travel. A scene in Chennai. | Photo Credit: M. Vedhan
The free bus travel scheme for women, Vidiyal Payanam, launched by the DMK government, has become a subject of research. Organisations have done a SWOT analysis of the scheme that was announced immediately after the DMK, led by M.K. Stalin, entered office in March 2021. Punjab also implemented free bus travel for women at the same time, while Delhi has had it since October 2019. Karnataka and Telangana provide women with similar concessions.
Through the scheme, the Tamil Nadu government has aimed at two important goals: earning the goodwill of women, and saving the seven State Transport Corporations (STCs), including the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), from going bankrupt.
As the country came out of the COVID-19 lockdown, commuters’ confidence in public transport was at its lowest. As transport corporations struggled to stay afloat after the pandemic, the subsidy given under the scheme has helped them avoid bankruptcy.
The free bus travel was extended to the third gender on a request from the community. The Consumer and Civic Action Group (CAG) assessed the implementation of the social welfare measure. The report was recently released by MTC Managing Director Alby John.
A senior official of the Transport Department said nearly 440 crore women passengers had been ferried by the seven corporations (MTC, Villupuram, Salem, Coimbatore, Kumbakonam, Madurai, and Tirunelveli) since the launch of the scheme in July 2021 till March 18, 2024. In the financial year 2023-24, 178 crore women travelled free under the scheme. The number of passengers, particularly women, has increased to 51 lakh a day in the 2023-24 fiscal from the earlier average of 45 lakh women a day.
Of the total of nearly 440 crore beneficiaries, the MTC carried 88.50 crore passengers, the highest. It was followed by the Kumbakonam STC with 80.75 crore, and Coimbatore STC with 65.40 crore passengers. The Villupuram STC carried 58.90 crore, Madurai 52.75 crore, Salem 51.20 crore, and Tirunelveli 42 crore. Among the happiest beneficiaries are the women in hilly areas: a total of 8.78 lakh of these women have used this scheme on the ghat routes, thus making monthly savings.
The study report called ‘Fair Fares: Towards gender-inclusive public transport’ undertook a survey in the State with more than 3,000 women (in Chennai, Coimbatore, Salem, Thiruvarur, Tirunelveli and Tiruvannamalai) to understand the effective implementation of the scheme and the savings made by the women. The study found that, on an average, 80 % of the women interviewed saved Rs. 400 per month and the remaining, Rs. 601 to Rs. 800 per month. The study’s main highlight was that free bus travel has helped in breaking the shackles for women to move out of the house and has emerged as a truly social inclusive mission.
K. Sowmya, Research scholar of CAG, who did the survey along with a few others said it was mainly carried out across cross sections of women using the public transport daily to find the impact of the free bus travel in their daily life. Ms. Sowmya said most of the women were positive about the scheme which helped them save money and created a situation whereby they could travel out, but they also wanted the scheme to be extended to express and deluxe services similar to the concession passes provided to senior citizens who are allowed to travel in any bus.
Also read: Commuters want direct services to Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur
The study charts out the various categories of women including homemakers, informal workers, self-employed, students, employees and retired, using public transport. Respondents also made demands to increase the frequency of the white board (ordinary) buses as the existing services buses are crowded, need for better maintenance of buses, and improvement of bus crew behaviour.
T. Vasanthakumari, a resident of Thiruporur, who commutes to Thiruvanmiyur daily, said the bus service from Kelambakkam to Koyambedu (route no. 570) has the most frequency but unfortunately it has only Deluxe services, which is not covered under Vidiyal Payanam. Normally there is a shortage of white board services on the Information technology corridor. As a result most of the women commuters have gone ahead and purchased the monthly pass, she added.
Transport activists, while appreciating the MTC for operating white board services on several routes linking to the new Kilambakkam bus terminus, said several MTC buses have exclusive Deluxe services and it would be helpful if the Transport department takes steps to operate a mix of Deluxe and White Board services.
A few of the routes which have predominantly Deluxe board services including Kelambakkam to Koyambedu (570), Velachery to Ambattur Industrial Estate (D70), Tambaram to Broadway (A51), High court to Thiruninravur (71E), Triplicane to Pattabhiram (40A) and Tambaram to Avadi via Outer Ring Road (202).
Consumer activist T. Sadagopan says that under normal circumstances, women skip the deluxe buses on certain routes where there is a good mix of white-board and deluxe buses. As these deluxe buses normally have fewer passengers and there are always some seats vacant, the government can allot a small number of seats for women to travel free in these buses.
A senior Transport Department official, responding to the charge of women passengers that the transport corporations operate a reduced number of white-board buses, says that more than 50% of the fleet are operated as ordinary buses. For example, of the MTC’s fleet of 3,300 buses, 1,560 buses are being operated as ordinary services. He says that every day, 1,350 deluxe buses, 210 women-cum-children buses, 146 small buses, and 48 air-conditioned services are operated.
The official says Chennai city alone will get 1,000 new buses (500 electric, 250 low-floor, and 250 standard) before the end of the year. So, the complaints about inadequate white-board buses will come down.
The official also points out that the scheme has thrown a lifeline to the transport corporations facing huge losses and funds shortage and saved the State’s public transport system from going bust. He says the total subsidy given by the government, since the launch of the scheme in March 2021, stood at ₹6,788 crore, with the MTC’s share being ₹1,422 crore till March 2024.
Regarding the complaints about bus crews abusing the beneficiaries, the official says stern departmental action has been initiated and the crews have been put through a programme to develop professional behaviour.
Chennai / public transport
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