Season ticket sale data indicates that nearly 25% of commuters on suburban trains are women and they make up close to 35% of BEST bus passengers too. The proportion of women on Western and Central Railway divisions is even higher if traffic from satellite townships such as Virar, Mira-Bhayander, Kalyan-Dombivli and Panvel into areas in Greater Mumbai alone is considered. Women comprise a major and growing chunk of the workforce in addition to the student population.
Transportation infrastructure, though, has not kept pace with the growing demand and there is no solution in sight in the near future as well. Central Railways’ chief public relations officer Shivraj Manaspure, for one, said capacity augmentation for women may be considered once projects such as the fifth and sixth lines between CSMT and Kurla, third and fourth lines between Kalyan and Badlapur and Kalyan and Asangaon, and a third line between Asangaon and Kalyan are completed by 2026. While the sixth line project between Borivli and Khar will be completed this year, Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation will quadruple the Virar-Dahanu lines and Western Railway the fifth and sixth lines by December 2025 and March 2026, respectively.
The upcoming Metro network is expected to help ease the crush too.
According to the 2011 census, female work participation stood at 18.8% in the island city and 18.3% in the suburbs. To add to that, data from Mumbai University shows there has been an approximately 25% increase in girl students in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in city colleges in the past six to seven years. In fact, the number of UG and PG girl students is nearly equal to that of boys in the city now.
Krutika Desai, principal of Mithibai College, said girls earlier preferred colleges closer to home but the trend has been changing. “Many are willing to travel to the city even from far-off suburbs (like Vasai and Virar),” she said, adding her college has more girl students than boys.
Rlys & BEST try to meet demand
Both CR and WR run ladies’ special trains to cater to women passengers, apart from reserving seats for them. But many say more needs to be done to increase space for women in public transport. Mira Road resident Sheetal Pandya said, “Our coaches may look empty during non-peak hours but witness super dense crush load during peak hours. Viral videos of fights erupting in women coaches indicate how tempers run high due to overcrowding.” Dombivli’s Priya V said, “Only one first-class coach is reserved for ladies for the entire day. Those who travel early morning are forced to share space in the first class with men, which is annoying.”
A gender study by Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) in 2022 had confirmed that 76% women and 64% men reported having travelled with dependents on the Metro and when with them would want priority access to ticketing and security along with reserved seating. Activists said similar sentiments would prevail on local trains as women need the use of public transport more than men for caregiving activities, shopping, visits to doctors and meeting family members, among others. Andheri resident, translator Ujjwala Mhatre said, “The problem of overcrowding can be solved if more 15-car services are operated.”
On BEST, nearly 12 lakh women commuters travel daily, which is now 34% of total daily bus ridership of 35 lakh. Women bus users have increased from 26% pre-Covid to 34% now. BEST officials said women find the fleet safe and comfortable and the majority travel short distances in AC Midi buses on feeder routes from home to railway or Metro station and back.
“We have not just women office-goers but thousands of daily school and college/university students who depend on buses,” said a senior official from the traffic division of BEST. “If you go to bus stops in the morning and afternoon hours, you find several female students waiting in queues and carrying our Chalo smartcards or mobile passes for travel,” he said.
BEST has 12 seats reserved for women in every bus. It has also increased the number of ladies’ special buses in areas such as CSMT-NCPA, Churchgate-Nariman Point and World Trade Centre, and in office areas of Colaba, Lower Parel, Andheri, Goregaon and Malad.
Commuter rights activist Aarati Pugaonkar from Pravasi Takrar Manch said it is no longer the 9-5 job that occupies women; she is out round-the-clock in Mumbai. “We need the ladies’ special buses not just during peak hours, but even during afternoon and late-night hours,” she has demanded in a petition to BEST.
Another surge coming?
Some experts, though, said the number of women commuting by local trains has still not reached the pre-pandemic level. “Even if there is an increase, it is still to go back to the pre-pandemic level. It is easier to find seating in local trains now as opposed to the pre-pandemic years,” said Vibhuti Patel, vice-president of the Indian Association of Women Studies.
“Post pandemic, there has been a massive pullout of women from the workforce. Automation has increased and women have not gone back or are not absorbed by their companies. And this also includes middle-class and upper middle-class women and the ones in white-collared jobs,” said Patel. In one of her articles in a recent book, Patel cited McKinsey & Company’s 2020 report which mentioned that although globally women make up 39% of the workforce, they account for 54% of overall job losses.
Several other transport experts said commuting numbers are likely to increase in the months and years to come and planners in the railways and BEST may need to bear this in mind while coming up with solutions. A senior CR official said, “It is a tricky situation as any increase in space for women will come at the cost of men who also travel in huge numbers.”
