Where does this bus go?

Vidiyal Payanam: Free bus travel for women in Tamil Nadu boosts public transport and empowers women economically.

The free bus travel scheme for women - Vidiyal Payanam- launched by the DMK government has become the subject of research. Organisations have done a SWOT analysis of the scheme that was announced immediately after the DMK government headed by M.K. Stalin assumed office in March 2021. Punjab has also implemented free bus travel for women about the same time, while Delhi has had it available since October 2019. Since March 2021, Karnataka and Telengana have both had similar concessions provided for women from 2023.

The government, through the launch of Vidiyal Payanam has targeted two important goals: earning the goodwill of women, and also saving the seven State transport corporations including the Metropolitan Transport Corporations (MTC) from going bankrupt. As the country came out of the COVID-19 lockdowns in 202, commuters’ confidence in the public transport hit its lowest ebb. As transport corporations struggled to find their footfalls post pandemic, the subsidy provided through the free bus travel has helped keep the public bus transport from going under.

The free bus travel for women was later extended to the third gender as well, based on a request from the community. The Consumer and Civic Action Group (CAG) did a survey of the implementation of the social welfare measure, and the report recently launched by the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) Managing Director Alby John.

A senior official of the State Transport department said a total of 440 crore women passengers have been ferried by the seven State Transport corporations - MTC, Villupuram, Salem, Coimbatore, Kumbakonam, Madurai and Tirunelveli, since the launch of the free bus travel scheme from July 2021 to March 18, 2024.

In the financial year 2023-24, a total of 178 crore women passengers have travelled free under the scheme, out of the total 430 crore women passengers who have utilised the free bus service scheme through these transport corporations, since its introduction in 2021.

The passenger footfalls, particularly of women, has increased to 51 lakh per day in FY 2023-24 from the overall average of 45 lakh women passengers per day earlier.

Looking at the way the pie has been shared, of the total of 430 crore women passengers, the MTC carried 88.50 crore passengers, the highest, followed by Kumbakonam STC at 80.75 crore and Coimbatore STC at 65.40 crore. The remaining four STCs of Villupuram carried 58.90 crore, Madurai STC of 52.75 crore, Salem STC 51.20 crore and Tirunelveli 42 crore. Among the happiest beneficiaries are also the women passengers living in hilly areas, indicated by the fact that a total of 8.78 lakh women have used this scheme in the ghat road routes which has helped in their monthly savings.