WORLD BANK NEW TOOLKIT
1. Context
The World Bank launched a "Toolkit on Enabling Gender Responsive Urban Mobility and Public Spaces in India" to suggest ways to make public transport in Indian cities more inclusive of women's travelling requirements.
2. Key points
- The toolkit emphasises 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 inclusion of the Indian context.
3. Poor public transport
- Women 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".
- 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 daily 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. |
4. Labour Force Participation Rate
- India's female labour force participation rate is among the lowest in the world, standing at just 30 per cent in 2019-20.
- The lack of viable urban transport is frequently cited as a major impediment for women to access better employment opportunities.
- The distance from home impacts women's choice of colleges and other educational institutions and by implication their financial independence and agency.
5. Major concerns
5.1 Lack of safety
- Lack of safety and perception of safety are major impediments for women when it comes to accessing public transport.
- The dearth of good street lighting, no reliable last-mile transport and high waiting times 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 makes these spaces even more unsafe.
5.2 The burden of care work
- 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.
5.3 Higher costs of travelling
This is mainly because of two reasons.
1. 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 to school and back to home. The World Bank recognises this as "trip chaining" and this increases travel costs.
2. 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 safer. For instance, women often take longer routes to travel which are perceived to be safer, rather than travelling through "unsafe areas". All these factors amount together as a "pink tax" that specifically burdens women and impedes them from making optimal decisions for themselves.
6. World Bank toolkit suggestions
It suggests a four-pillared approach to help address prevailing issues in urban transport for women.
6.1 Gender-blind planning and infrastructure development
- There has to be a greater effort made to understand the on-ground situation through a gender lens.
- Gender-blind planning and infrastructure development leave 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.
6.2 Policies and development plans
- 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 and their needs are always likely to be secondary.
- Thus the 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.
6.3 Building gender sensitivity and awareness
- The toolkit emphasises 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.
6.4 Better infrastructure and services
- 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 the creation of wide obstruction, free footpaths, street lighting, clear signages, dedicated bicycle lanes, the introduction of short and circuitous bus routes and subsidising or making free public transport for women. |
7. Benefits of implementing a toolkit
- 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, but 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 policymakers and developers.
- Rather, it is to integrate a gender lens into everyday planning and development to make our cities safer and more accessible to women.
For Prelims & Mains
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For Prelims: Urbanisation, World Bank's new toolkit, Pink tax,
For Mains:
1. What is World Bank's new toolkit? and Discuss reasons for making urban transport better for Indian women. (250 Words)
2. Why India needs good urbanisation? Comment. (250 Words)
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Source: The Indian Express
