Women’s access and use of urban transportation will play a big role in achieving India’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) and ensure women’s right to the city and its public spaces. Since urban transport is not the responsibility of one ministry or department, gender inclusion will require interventions at multiple scales and coordination with a number of ministries and departments
Over 2012-20, around 865 million women are expected to enter the workforce (Strategy and PwC 2012). According to the McKinsey Global Institute, if women were to play an equal role in labour markets, as much as USD 28 trillion could be added to the global economy by 2025. Yet, in urban India, women’s labour force participation is only at 15.5 per cent (MoSPI 2014) and in fact, India’s female labour force dropped by 19.2 million individuals between 2004-5 and 2011-12 (Andres, et al. 2017).
The performance of urban transport services places different burdens on women and men, with the costs of poor public transport often being borne by women. For example, women may turn down better employment opportunities further away from home in favour of lower-paid local opportunities when the public transport system is unreliable or unaffordable (ADB 2013). Safe, comfortable, convenient and affordable transport can play an important role in not only helping meet women’s practical needs such as access to schools and markets, but also in contributing to their strategic empowerment by facilitating access to social and economic opportunities.
In India, women’s concerns in urban transport came to the fore primarily through the lens of safety since Jyoti Singh’s death in December 2012. It brought this issue, which had earlier remained confined to feminist and queer movements (Baxi 2014), to the public discourse and galvanized action by civil society and different levels of government to create safer public transportation systems.
Women and girls are close to 50 per cent of our urban population. While they comprise only 19 per cent of “other workers” and yet 84 per cent of their trips are by public, intermediate public and non-motorized modes of transport (Census 2011). While 73 per cent of trips by “other workers” in urban areas are by sustainable modes of transport, women and girls’ share is only 14 per cent. In the coming decade, cities will need to make a concerted effort to improve women and girls’ experience
of sustainable modes of transport to achieve a target of 40 per cent of all trips. The National Urban Transport Policy should adopt the sustainable development goal 11.2, which aims to “By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons”.
The following indicators recommend a framework to assess comprehensive mobility plans through a gender lens. It provides a framework to integrate technical and social, quantitative and qualitative approaches for enabling this transition.
- Urban mobility plans need to adopt a holistic approach towards gender inclusion. An institutional framework is recommended to guide the preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the comprehensive mobility plan.
- Create a functional Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) in 1 million+ cities. The UMTA should include women’s groups, gender, urban planning and transportation experts.
- Create a multi-stakeholder committee (MSC) in cities less than a population of 1 million, comprising of the urban local body, urban development authority, traffic police, police, public transport authorities, relevant state departments along with women’s groups, gender, urban planning and transportation experts.
- Create a Gender Advisory Committee (GAC) within the UMTA or the multi- stakeholder committee to review each stage of the comprehensive mobility plan process, transportation projects, policies and programs, monitor implementation, evaluate impact and implement a capacity building program. The GAC will include gender experts from transport organizations in the UMTA. Identify a senior state level official, such as the Chairman of the UMTA or MSC to preside over the GAC and become a champion for implementation of gender responsive projects in the mobility plan.