Opinions

ET View: Free travel for women is myopic politics that would harm the poor


The Delhi government’s proposal to make travel free for women on buses and the Metro has a certain appeal in a polity that has been trained to accept handouts from the government as entitlement. However, there is no such thing as a free ride. If the Delhi government bears the subsidy burden on free women’s travel, that subsidy amount is taken away from another potential use. Public funds should be used for whatever brings the most social good.

Given that supply of clean drinking water remains a luxury for a good part of the Delhi’s poor, it is conceivable that the returns in terms of better health and productivity and avoided healthcare expenditure, besides avoided expenditure on tankers that the poor summon to get their drinking water, would be much higher on extending and improving drinking water supply rather than on making travel free for a section of travellers.

Even in public transport, there are better candidates for public funds. Missing last mile connectivity is a major obstacle to wider adoption of public transport even by those willing to eschew private transport for their commute. Spending the money allocated for making travel free for women on last mile connectivity — smaller, more frequent feeder buses, for example — would make travel safer and more attractive for all, including women.

Commutes eminently qualify for realisation of user charges from the commuter. Of course, to the extent more people use public transport, there would be collective benefits such as reduced pollution, there is a case for subsidising public transport as a whole. The Metro already gets that, by way subsidised financing. There is no case for infecting the Metro system with the malaise of subsidy eating into the capacity to invest to expand services that cripples the Railways.





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