On March 8th, the Stree Mukti Andolan Sampark Samiti had a discussion on various gender issues and linked to that current policy issues. In this meeting, resolutions were tabled on various issues concerning women like education, health, inflation, food security, agriculture etc. Ranjit Gadgil, the Program Director at Parisar talked about the issues women face in urban transport and laid out the demands and objectives of the ‘Lakh Ko 50‘ campaign.
Following points were raised by him at the meeting:
1. Transportation is important for women’s access to education, employment and health facilities, and therefore their quality of life and prosperity are related to transportation. From good transport, women develop and if they develop, society and the world develops. Therefore, we are running a campaign ‘Lakh Ko 50’ through which we are demanding that everyone should get more buses, that transport should be gender-responsive i.e. women should get what they need and their journey should be easier.
2. Even in transport, women have different needs than men. As part of this discussion, the questions and needs of women bus commuters of all age groups and different professions in Mumbai were presented. After presenting this, Mr. Gadgil questioned the ways in which these needs are to be met, how a transport service as talked by women can be enabled for all, without only providing a separate transport service for women.
3. When the Lakh ko 50 campaign proposal and demand was taken to the Minister for Women and Child Welfare, Govt of Maharashtra, Parisar was told that transportation had nothing to do with the concerns and agenda of the said department. Therefore, it is important that we demonstrate and show the demand from women and how the Women and Child Development department must concern themselves with the provision of good quality urban transport. And we hope that more and more women like you will voice your support.
4. Like any other subject, transportation is a women’s subject and we think women should be involved in the planning for gender-responsive transport. The Tejaswini buses in Pune which were started for women were stopped because the planning was not done according to the needs and requirements of women properly.
5. It has been witnessed that women do not have their own vehicles. The proportion of women as bus users and pedestrians is far more in number. If the number of buses is not going to be enough in the city, it will lead to crowding which in turn will increase the problems faced by women.
6. The number of buses should be increased to reduce congestion. We have heard from the state government that buses are losing money and we cannot afford them. They often say we don’t have any budget/money for city buses. However, public bus service is just as important as education, health, and basic services like water, electricity, housing, etc. Therefore, urban bus service should be declared as an essential service and budget should be made available for it. Women should be involved in its planning.
The leader of Stree Mukti Andolan Sampark Samiti, Smt. Kiran Moghe and other member organisations expressed interest in this issue and promised to support this campaign.