[sustran] Re: Bikes in India

Priyanthi Fernando priyanthi.fernando at mcmail.com
Wed May 13 19:54:36 JST 1998


Just to let you know that Nitya Rao is carrying out a case study on 
Pudokkotai experience for the IFRTD's Gender Issues in Rural 
Transport programme.

> Date:          Sun, 12 Jul 1998 17:14:48 -0700
> To:            sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org
> From:          Tamim Raad <raad at unixg.ubc.ca>
> Subject:       [sustran] Re: Bikes in India
> Reply-to:      sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org

> >Delivery-date: Tue, 12 May 1998 15:21:53 -0700
> >Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 13:27:07 -0700 (PDT)
> >From: Lee Henderson <lhenders at vcc.bc.ca>
> >To: transit betenvi <BEST at sustainability.com>
> >Subject: Re: Bikes in India
> >Reply-To: BEST at sustainability.com
> >Organization: BEST (http://www.sustainability.com/best)
> >X-Sender: BEST at sustainability.com
> >X-Reply-To: BEST at sustainability.com
> >Error-To: scott at communicopia.bc.ca
> >X-ListMember: raad at unixg.ubc.ca [BEST at sustainability.com]
> >
> >
> >I saw this on the International Bicycle Fund Website
> >http://www.ibike.org/index.htm
> >============================================================
> >
> >Bicycle Promotion Among Women In Rural India 
> >Mobility & Quality of Life 
> >>From Literacy To Empowerment To Bicycles In Rural India 
> >
> >For years, fetching water for Mariamman of Siranjeni village was one of
> >many dreary chores. When the village well dried up in summer, she had to
> >trudge 2 km to a neighboring village to secure water.  Now fetching water
> >is far easier; all she has to do is take her bicycle.  Like Mariamman,
> >thousand of women in Pudukottai district in Tamil Nadu are using their
> >bicycles, not just to fetch water but for a myriad utility trips. But it
> >hasn't always been this way.
> >
> >It was novel literacy drive, launched in 1991, that has lead to 50,000
> >women in the 3,000 villages of Pudukottai (370km from Madras, India) to
> >learn to ride bicycles.  Originally, the scheme had four elements;
> >literacy, arithmetic, awareness and application. Seeing an additional
> >need, collector Sheela Rani Chungat added a fifth element -- mobility.
> >These days Pudukottai women sing "we have learnt to cycle, brother/ and
> >with it, we have turned the wheel of our lives, brother". As the song
> >bears out, the results of Chungat's initiative have far exceeded
> >expectations.
> >
> >In the harvest season, women now carry bundles of ripe stalk on a cycle,
> >not on their heads. When the men work in the fields, their lunches are
> >delivered to them by their wives on wheels. And sometimes, newly mobile
> >mothers save their children long, tiring walks to and from the village.
> >
> >The cycle-training program started as a no-cost affair. Villagers lent one
> >or two cycles. Initially classes were held after dark, helping the
> >students to get over their initial shyness and reluctance.  "There were
> >few people around to make fun of us when we fell down,"  recalls
> >Mariamman. 
> >
> >When some women began showing off their success on their husbands' and
> >brothers' cycles, the bug caught on. Next, the program coordinators
> >arranged for bank loans to buy bikes. Still, some women have been unable
> >to derive the fullest mileage from their recently acquired skills. Most do
> >not have the money to buy their own cycles and their fathers, brothers and
> >husbands, get first preference on family bikes. There are also
> >family-imposed restrictions -- chores, sewing classes and primary health
> >care are all right, but movies, cruising and fun outings are an absolute
> >no-no.
> >
> >[Base on an article by Nirupama Subramanian, in "India Today".] 
> >
> >For details on this and other programs promoting bicycle transport write: 
> >Laxmi Narain Modi, Exec.  Director., Nation Building Forum, 305 Bakshi
> >House, 40-41 Nehru Place, New Dehli 110019, INDIA.
> >
> 
> ------------------
> Tamim Raad
> Point Grey RPO, Box 39150
> Vancouver, British Columbia  V6R 4P1
> CANADA
> Tel: 1 (604) 739-2146
> Email: raad at unixg.ubc.ca
> 
> 
Priyanthi Fernando
Executive Secretary
IFRTD
150 Southampton Row, London WC1B 5AL
Tel: +44 171 278 3670
Fax: +44 171 278 6880
email:ifrtd/gn.apc.org
http://www.gn.apc.org/ifrtd



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