Pink Tickets to Saheli Smart Cards: Gendered Mobility and Debates on Fare-Free Travel

Abstract

This paper traces the evolution of the Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT) scheme in Delhi since 2019 as a way to promote women’s mobility throughout the city and how policy revisions of the scheme...have affected the urban poor and migrant women disproportionately through an ethnographic study of bus route DTC523 that connects the working class neighbourhood and labour colonies (Bhatti Mines) to one of the centres of South Delhi (Dhaula Kuan) to understand the role of public bus as an essential transportation means for mobility and access to public place, safety and security needs during journey and experience of bus journeys as gendered bodies in public transportation system. The pink tickets are perceived as safety infrastructures by women commuters more than CCTVs.