Why Free Bus Travel Matters for Women and Transgender People

On August 15, the Andhra Pradesh government launched the Stree Shakti scheme, allowing all girls, women and transgender persons domiciled in the state to travel free of cost on five categories of the state-run APSRTC buses. Tickets are issued at zero fare and later reimbursed by the government to the corporation. 

The scheme was part of the coalition’s “super six” promises. Its immediate impact was remarkable: within 30 hours, over 12 lakh women had travelled under it, collectively saving nearly five crore rupees. 

Responding to requests, the chief minister even extended the facility to buses on ghat roads, showing how quickly it had become integral to daily life. Yet, alongside this enthusiasm came complaints.

When progress begins to feel like disruption

Some passengers grumble that the buses are now overcrowded, as a result of which quarrels over seats have increased, and that women are “roaming about unnecessarily” because it is free. They complain that even during off-peak hours, the congestion is visible, leaving students and elderly men feeling uneasy. 

Although these experiences are genuine, they cannot define the policy. Whenever excluded groups gain access, those already present feel the squeeze. Change always begins with friction and history offers examples. 

When student bus passes were first introduced, critics worried about crowding. When Indian women secured the right to vote in the 1920s, some said they were not “ready.” When ladies’ compartments appeared in trains and metros, there were mutterings about segregation. 

Today, all of these are accepted as essential. The Stree Shakti scheme belongs in that continuum.

Whose mobility counts?

The sharpest criticisms often come from those whose own mobility has long been subsidised or protected – in this case, men who move freely in public space without thought, or students whose concessional passes are taken for granted. 

The biggest beneficiaries of the Stree Shakti scheme are different include middle- and lower-class women for whom bus fares consume a significant share of household income. They are lower-caste and tribal women who often live far from hospitals, schools or work sites. 

They are domestic workers, small traders and vendors who can now travel daily without sacrificing part of their meagre wages. For them, saving a few hundred rupees a month is equivalent to more food on the table, medicine, sanitary hygiene, or school fees paid on time. 

In fact, a review of the scheme noted that in just one day, women collectively saved five crore rupees. That is state-enabled redistribution of resources to those who need it most.

Andhra Pradesh is not alone in this path. Delhi has had free bus travel for women since 2019, while Punjab and Tamil Nadu rolled out similar schemes in 2021, followed later by Karnataka and Telangana. Evaluations in Tamil Nadu found that women saved between Rs 400 and Rs 800 a month, money that went directly into household needs. 

Far from bankrupting the system, the subsidy gave a lifeline to struggling state transport corporations in the aftermath of the pandemic. Crucially, the scheme was also extended to transgender persons, reinforcing the point that such measures are not “freebies” but instruments of social inclusion and institutional survival.

The real problem is not the scheme

If buses are overcrowded, the solution lies in strengthening APSRTC, not scrapping the scheme. The corporation has been financially stressed for years, often described as debt-ridden. 

However, the Stree Shakti scheme’s success should prompt renewed investment – more buses, better scheduling and staff training. Overcrowding is a supply problem, not a reason to deny equity. If quarrels are increasing, it points to the need for better frontline management, not withdrawal of a scheme already improving millions of lives.

Must mobility be defined by productivity?

Another objection is that women are “roaming” simply because it is free, as if mobility must be justified by productivity. Men have long claimed the right to wander, to occupy tea shops, markets and pavements without purpose – for leisure. 

Women deserve the same freedom. If free travel lets women visit friends, stroll in markets, or explore new places, it is not wasteful. It is transformative. 

Visibility itself is safety. The more women occupy buses, streets and markets, the less exceptional their presence becomes.

Whose subsidy is legitimate?

There is also the question of how public money is used. Taxpayers routinely underwrite corporate tax breaks, loan waivers, and incentives for big business, yet similar spending on women’s mobility is branded a “freebie.” 

When corporate loans go bad, they are written off as non-performing assets (NPAs). Lakhs of crores have been absorbed quietly by the banking system and, ultimately, by the public. Why is a corporate loan write-off seen as a necessity but a woman boarding a bus on a free ticket treated as extravagance? 

If national wealth can be used to socialise corporate losses, surely it can also support those most marginalised to claim their place in public space.

Impact for transgender communities

The scheme’s impact has been profound for transgender persons. For too long, they have been pushed to the margins of public life, facing ridicule or outright denial of service in buses and other spaces. 

Free travel is more than welfare for them – it is recognition of their right to move with dignity and visibility as equal citizens. To see transgender passengers boarding buses without hesitation is transformational. 

It asserts that public transport, and the city itself, belongs to them as much as to anyone else.

A transformative step

The Stree Shakti scheme is not flawless and the APSRTC must be strengthened to reduce disputes and issues like overcrowding. But public policy should not be judged by how it inconveniences the comfortable; rather it should be judged by how it empowers the marginalised. 

Andhra Pradesh, like the other states which continue similar schemes, has taken a bold step in making mobility a right rather than a privilege. The Stree Shakti scheme is a transformative measure that redistributes resources, reshapes public space, and makes equity visible on our roads. 

The buses may feel more crowded today but they are also carrying with them a more inclusive idea of freedom.

Asifa Zunaidha F. and Tarif Sohail teach Political Science at the GITAM School of Humanities and Social Sciences, GITAM Deemed University, Visakhapatnam.

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