Jaipur: Rajasthan administration announced that women and girls could travel on Rajasthan Roadways buses for free on March 8, International Women's Day, PTI reported.
The administration estimated that around 8.50 lakh women and girls will be travelling by bus on International Women's Day. All Rajasthan Roadways buses, including ordinary and fast, will provide this facility.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has approved the proposal.
Further, the CM approved the hike concession for women on fares of ordinary Rajasthan Roadways buses to 50 per cent. This will be implemented from April 1. This move will put an additional annual financial burden of about ₹ 3.50 crore on the state government.
Currently, the concession is 30 per cent. Gehlot had announced the increased concession in the state budget for 2023-24.
In 2021, the Tamil Nadu government implemented Zero-Ticket Bus Travel (ZTBT), allowing women to travel (in whiteboard buses) free of charge. This was not for a single day, but it is still going on for around two years, Deccan Herald reports.
In 2022, the State Planning Commission of Tamil Nadu conducted a study that claimed that the scheme had benefited Tamil Nadu women a lot, particularly those who earn less than 12,000 a month. The study stated that the scheme particularly helped street vendors who commute daily to towns to buy commodities to sell them in their respective areas.
They inferred that when the average user of the scheme saved 11.4 per cent of their monthly income, those from economically vulnerable sections such as street vendors and domestic workers saved 14 per cent.
In 2019, Delhi's Aam Aadmi Party also implemented free bus rides for women with "pink tickets".