KOCHI: As the UDF government completes 100 days in office, the impact of its free travel scheme for women on KSRTC ordinary buses — one of its first promises to be implemented — is coming under close scrutiny. TNIE reporter Abhirami Anil and lensman T P Sooraj travelled alongside women passengers to gauge, first-hand, whether the cash-strapped, loss-making KSRTC’s free-travel initiative is making a meaningful difference in the lives of Kerala women
In the dim early morning light, a KSRTC bus stood at the Ernakulam South bus stand, waiting to begin another trip to Guruvayur. There was nothing unusual about the bus at first glance. But the destination board carried a name that has begun to mean something different to many women in Kerala — Priyadarshini Sthree Saujanya Yathra.
The bus left South almost empty. At Boat Jetty, however, the quietness began to disappear. Four women in their 60s stood near the bus, looking around for the board they had heard about. They appeared unsure at first, scanning the bus and then looking at one another. Then came a small wave of recognition, one pointed towards the board, the others followed, and the four friends and relatives climbed aboard with smiles.
They settled into the fourth and fifth rows.
“Evidekka?” the conductor asked.“Four Guruvayur (tickets),” one replied, with a hint of uncertainty.
They opened their purses and began searching for the fare. Before they could hand over the money, the conductor smiled.“It’s Priyadharshini!”
The four women broke into relieved smiles. “We have seen this on television, but we had never travelled in the bus,” one of them said.
For Radhamma, Indira, Sathi and Geethamma, the journey to Guruvayur was more than a temple visit. It was something they had once considered difficult to afford.
“Earlier, whenever we wanted to travel somewhere by KSRTC, we would have to set aside a part of our pension — around `2,000. Now we don’t have to spend that much. This is our first trip to Guruvayur in a Priyadarshini bus,” Radhamma said.
The four women are relatives, and close friends, from Chittoor. One of them is related through marriage, while the others are connected through family. They had come prepared for the unfamiliar. They did not know the exact timings of the service and had decided to ask their way through.
“We don’t have to wait for anyone now,” one of them said.
Indira remembered how she first heard about the service.
“When this was implemented, my daughter-in-law saw it on television and told me about it,” she said.
The women had heard from other passengers that there was a Priyadarshini service to Guruvayur. Someone had even told them that a bus would be available around 7am.
“Everyone kept telling us there was a bus to Guruvayur like this. That is how we decided to come. Those who had travelled in Priyadarshini told us there would be a bus around 7am,” she said.
For women living on pensions and dependent on their children, even a few rupees can make a difference.
“On average, we would need around Rs 500 for a trip to Guruvayur and back,” Radhamma said.
The savings, she said, do not simply remain in their purses.“We get Rs 4,000 as two months’ pension. We manage with that. If we want to go somewhere like this, we can take the money from our pension without troubling our children. We can save a little even while buying gas or vegetables. With that money, we can celebrate Onam too.”
Another woman saw an even more immediate benefit.
“If the bus comes to Chittoor, it would be very useful. The bus could stop right in front of the local temple. We are people who come up through a lot of hardship. If we can save even Rs 10, we can at least buy a cup of tea.”
For Geethamma, the trip had been planned around her grandchildren’s school holiday. “We came looking for a day when our grandchildren had no school. Today is Sunday, so we got the opportunity. Otherwise, we cannot go on a working day because the children have to go to school. I told Geethamma that we should go today,” she said, adding that they had left early because they wanted to avoid the longer queues at the temple.
The trip also carried a personal significance for another member of the group.
“I am not from Chittoor. Since all of them live there, I came from Alappuzha to their house the previous day and stayed there. From now on, whenever I travel from Chittoor to Alappuzha, I will take the Priyadarshini,” she said.
Sathi summed up what the journey meant to them with a mixture of affection and caution.
“They cannot simply say this and leave. There will be another election. But this will remain a memory for us,” she said with a smile.
In Perambra, another group of six women found their own reason to board the Priyadarshini. They travelled from Perambra around 2pm and reached Guruvayur, where they hired a room for three hours before visiting the temple. For them, the savings added up quickly. A journey that would normally have cost around `120 in bus fare became far more affordable, with the entire expense, including the short stay at the room, coming to around `300.
But the women said the value of the service went beyond the money saved.
“When we travel with the men in our families, they keep saying, ‘We’ll go, we’ll go.’ But when we travel on our own, it is different. There is a different kind of happiness in being able to go by ourselves,” Shantha, a team member said.
For these women, the Priyadarshini has made an outing to Guruvayur not only cheaper, but also something they can plan and undertake on their own.
FOR WOMEN WHO COUNT EVERY RUPEE
Disha K B from Edakochi and her former classmate Subhisha Ramesh from Perumbadappu were waiting for the Priyadarshini bus. Both work — Disha at a Godrej service centre and Subhisha as a salesgirl. “We have a two-wheeler, but for working women like us, this is extremely useful. Earlier, we would definitely depend on our husbands for travel expenses. Now we can save the money we would have spent on bus fare. For ordinary women like us who work in private jobs, this is very beneficial,” Disha said.
A BUS FOR A SATURDAY MASS
At Vellarpadam, a 65-year-old woman waited for another purpose. She had come to attend the 10.30am Mass at the church, travelling from the High Court area on the Priyadarshini service. For her, as for the others, the significance of the bus was not just the ticket fare. It was the possibility of going somewhere without asking whether she could afford it, whether someone could accompany her or whether she had to depend on another person.
MORE THAN A FREE RIDE
For the women boarding the Priyadarshini, the bus is not simply a government concession written on a ticket. It is a small expansion of their world. A temple visit that once required setting aside money. A glass of tea bought with the money saved on a fare. For the six women from Perambra, too, the Priyadarshini was about more than saving a few hundred rupees. It gave them something they rarely got when travelling with the men in their families — the freedom to decide when to go, where to go and simply leave.
Every L30 counts
For Valsala from Chottanikkara, the saving was even easier to calculate. She had travelled from Vaikom to Tripunithura on another Priyadarshini service and then took a different route as there was no connecting bus. By the time she reached the stop, she had just a few minutes before the bus was due to leave. “I reached here around 9.45am. If the fare is J30, that is J30 saved. If both of us save J30 each, we have J60 in our hands. With J30, I can buy a packet of milk for home,” she said.