[sustran] Re: Bicycles and girls education

[Rutul Joshi]

While talking to some of my friends, I have always encountered this phenomena in 
urban middle class. Empowerment and mobility are highly linked. Having a 
flexibility with transport has done wonders in individual families, suddenly the 
women in different families have had more central role to play in 
decision-making in otherwise patriarchal systems. However, this is more to do 
with motorised vehicles than the cycles. But I am sure, that cycling can also do 
wonders as Shekhar Gupta mentions. Of course, there is a need to make cycling 
safer in everyday life. 

Giving away cycles to the girl child has been a interesting political stunt in 
the South India. Once a friend working in rural Tamil Nadu told me that having a 
cycle with a girl child is having an asset with her out of nowhere. The boys (in 
the family and otherwise) see the girls as more 'privileged' - which is a rare 
feeling for both genders. The boys don't 'take away' these cycles because these 
are 'ladies' cycles and its too much for their ego to ride a 'ladies cycle'. All 
in all, such small interventions help more than anything. It is the cheapest way 
to promote cycling. However, making rural roads safer for pedestrians and 
cyclists is an issue. Designing 'shoulders' of the rural roads differently can 
also help the cause. However, students going to school or coming back ride on 
their cycles together and 'crowd up' the streets making the roads safer. 

Rutul 





________________________________
From: krishna gopal <krishkaran at gmail.com>
To: Ashok Sreenivas <ashok.sreenivas at gmail.com>
Cc: PTTF General <pttfgen at googlegroups.com>; Sustran List 
<sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>
Sent: Mon, 22 November, 2010 12:58:26 PM
Subject: [sustran] Re: Bicycles and girls education

Dear Ashok

Please, read the following link also in conjunction with the article you
have sent

http://www.hindu.com/2010/10/18/stories/2010101856090200.htm

Yes, the trickle effect it will have on the human development particularly
in the other part of the India for moving the people towards achieving this
goals of education and other( self respect and the esteem it gives when a
person can look after his own mobility)

I do recall, when I had walked atleast a minimum of 5 kilometers a day to my
elementary school and cycle was a luxury still I completed my secondary
education.

Great, It is mobility for the other India, definitely a Bicycle can do a lot
in this regard

Regards

On Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 4:07 PM, Ashok Sreenivas
<ashok.sreenivas at gmail.com>wrote:

> Excerpt from an article (
> http://www.indianexpress.com/news/a-mandate-for-nitish-hope-kumar/714282/0
> )
> totally unrelated to transport (it is about the results of the Bihar
> elections expected on Wednesday):
>
> "So, come on a drive with me to Bihar and I will show you a sight to
> cherish, one to light up your eyes, cheer your saddest, darkest hour, put a
> bounce in your step and, most of all, convince you once again that there is
> hope even for the worst governed, the most neglected parts of our country.
> It is the young girls, dozens and dozens and scores and scores of them,
> often in school uniforms, riding bicycles on the state’s new roads. Don’t
> miss the link between the roads, bicycles, uniforms, and the result this
> coming Wednesday. Nitish decided to attack the problem of low enrolment and
> large dropout rates for his state’s girls by offering a free bicycle to any
> girl moving to class nine. Four lakh bicycles have been distributed so far,
> and you already see a revolution of sorts on the wheels. Meanwhile, his
> high
> school enrolment for women has trebled."
>
> Ashok
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Urban & Regional Planner
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