[wheelguy]

On Monday, Delhi Chief Minister said that over 13,000 marshals have been appointed to ensure the safety of women in the buses plying in the national capital.

New Delhi: Women hailed the Delhi Government's decision to make bus rides free for them in the national capital on Tuesday.

The government has released notifications to make travel free for women in all Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and cluster buses on the basis of issuance of "Single Journey Free Travel Pass" by bus conductors.

Shweta, a resident of Delhi said: "This is a good step. Now, the women who could not afford a ticket will be able to travel for free."

"This is good for us but a loss for the government. It will be good if we get the buses on time," another resident Shanti said.

Source: ET Auto

[GrammarNazi]

Many debates may be, but IMHO there are more pros than cons in this.

Search for studies on this and it's found that when a person from really humble background doesn't incur the cost of travel to work or for other necessities, the effect is profound to that person's life, as a by product society too gets more ethical labour force. And of all things, civil society can do well to afford them this basic support, atleast starting with women. Soon to follow would be children, senior citizens & men. This isn't socialism, it's just basic courtesy a good citizenry should afford for itself.

Hope other states take a cue from this & think beyond petty politics in this regard.

[V.Narayan]

A very good and useful move IMHO. Most of the women who brave these DTC buses are from the bottom 60% of the economic hierarchy and for most of them a paisa saved is a paisa earned and the need for saving those Rs 50 a day is extreme for several. This is a situation which we, the well off car owners often do not comprehend. The posting of 13,000 security marshals is equally good news. 50% of our citizens have a right to safe transport without harassment which sadly they endure day in and day out. Good work Mr Kejriwal.

[fhdowntheline]

How long wil our country continue to wallow in the quagmire of pity for the poor? This is nothing but election politics at best and poverty mindset at worst. You are doing no empowerment to the current lot of the poor by throwing such freebies. It doesn’t work at any level. Suppose the same poor women wanted to travel someplace in Delhi in a rush, and queues up in the Metro, would they give them a free ride considering their gender and economic status? If not, then isn’t this the classical social divide?

[GTO]

Absolutely agreed with fhdowntheline! We live in a country where government expenditure vs income is anyway in the doldrums, and public transportation is among the cheapest in the world. And now this .

I am not a fan of free anything and the fact is, when something is given for free, people don't appreciate it. Sure, I understand this will be a game-changer for the under-privileged, so offer it JUST TO THEM. There are ways to do it. But making bus rides free for all women is just stupid on so many levels. Not to mention, its discriminatory against men. There are at least an equal number of men too who can't afford the bus fee - what about them?

[saket77]

This post of mine is not against women. And ingredients don't include artificial sweeteners & other sugar coats.

The problem is we are too good at lip service and tokenism. Rather than taking steps to curb violence, discrimination & harassment, against women where & when it actually happens; what we are trying to achieve is that we actually discriminate against men here as if they are not a part of society and exist only to harass women.

Does this 'exclusivity' to women ensure safety? Then why? I will tell why: because tokenism is far easier to achieve than actually taking the bull by horns and correcting the issues at ground level. You may guise it in any form, this is nothing more than politics and pseudo-feminism.

Provide such free-bees to all women and this will become a 'right' for all future generations of women and later we have a new problem to tackle just like the reservation. And if you feel it is right, then why stop here; we can go further on this with women exclusive localities, eateries, offices, etc. and declare that all is now right for the women.

Solution: Provide such services only to the one in need, and irrespective of the gender. If a poor man saves Rs. 50 per day, then he has a dependent women or a daughter on him too.

And for God's sake, please stop stereotyping all men as being rapists, harassers & abusers.

[kiku007]

Originally Posted by GTO

I am not a fan of free anything and the fact is, when something is given for free, people don't appreciate it.

Yes and no depending on a case to case basis.


Free noon-meal and free public transport for school children in TN has been well appreciated for many decades. And in the very same state of TN, freebies like TV, Fan and setup box is an embarrassment.

You are giving TBHP membership for free to members so to speak. What's your say on how well it's appreciated?

[BANDHAV]

All these steps by current Delhi Government are in wake of upcoming assembly election and if the feelers from the Public is anything to go by this seems to be working.

I personally feel any such free scheme should be released with the numbers of additional load on the exchequer.

This is appeasement politiics of a different kind.

[sumeethaldankar]

Instead of free they could have reduced fares for women. I do not understand why it has be free?

[KrisTvpm]

Saw a member likening T-BHP memberships to the Dilli CM's freebie. That doesn't match at any level of imagination, sorry! If T-BHP membership were likened to Gmail or FB or twitter membership which are also free (atleast the basic ones), that'd have made sense.

The Dilli case seems to be doling out freebies from an election point-of-view, here at T-BHP none contests any election AFAIK or no mods going to benefit by giving us memberships for free!

Such freebie, if offered to womenfolk from weaker section of society would've made sense, but this IMHO is just gimmick. Not at all against providing free transport/safety to women from weaker sections, but would me or my family members who can afford tickets in public transport appreciate this move !? No.

[opendro]

Public transport in the city can be and should be given free in today's context, not because people need it, but because it will encourage people to use public transport and thus reduce the number of vehicles on the road and pollution.

Who should fund the free transport? I say, fund it with costs collected from private cars in the form of parking, road fee, etc. This is equally important if the public transport has to be successful because unless driving own car is prohibitively expensive, people will not bother about taking a free ride.

Aim here is not to help the poor financially. Aim is to promote a sustainable city transport system by eliminating private vehicles.

Two wheelers should still be exempted from all parking and road use fees, because they are quite efficient in space (on road and parking) and fuel.

[Sebring]

When you give something free, people don't value it and then the misuse starts. Technically, even water should be priced 10 times higher - then the authorities will ensure zero wastage. But there are human rights issues with regards to the poorest in society, so that line of approach is dissuaded.

Originally Posted by opendro

Public transport in the city can be and should be given free in today's context

[humyum]

Super amazing. When the government of Delhi can manage the funds, why not? This is called real development and I would definitely not associate this with election jhumla's because most of the promises made have been fulfilled unlike the dalda acche din.

The wheels of the economy turn when people have spending power. The money saved in transportation by whoever is befitted will be spent elsewhere, something similar to the Nyay scheme

I hope other states see the light and start going in this direction than wasting money on statues, travelling like Vasco-da-Gama and a lot of unnecessary blowing up of money.

[charanreddy]

I understand giving free tickets to Poor.. Giving free tickets to all Women is nothing more than an election stunt. This is further highlighted by the timing : i.e during the election year. I hope the good people do not fall prey to such antics Vs solving the hard problems.

Going a bit Off topic : I was a fan of Mr Delhi CM when he first came to power by promising a different kind of politics, and over the past 5 years have seen unnecessary symbols of appeasement and stereo typing. As they say a single data point may well be an outlier but with 2 data points or more, a trend seems to emerge.

the below datapoints come to my mind:

http://www.newindianexpress.com/nati...b-2053322.html

and this :

https://twitter.com/arvindkejriwal/s...01393816924163

[rajvardhanraje]

I do not endorse such freebies. In my opinion nothing is free. If someone is getting something for free, someone else is paying for it. This is purely an election gimmick else it would have been implemented a few years ago. Plus the policy is flawed and discriminatory. A poor man, a daily wage worker deserves it much more than a well off woman. Such a scheme if implemented, should focus on the financially weak section rather than it being based on gender. The losses arising from such schemes will put more pressure on the tax payers as the amount needs to be recovered from some source.