Priyadarshini deserves better

Indira Gandhi continues to occupy a special place in the hearts and minds of Malayalis. Yet Priyadarshini – the middle name of India's only woman Prime Minister – remains surprisingly uncommon in Kerala.

In the weeks after June 15, everything changed dramatically as the UDF government rolled out one of its flagship Indira Guarantees: zero-fare travel for women on KSRTC ordinary buses. What began as an election promise soon transformed into a grassroots social phenomenon in Kerala.

Priyadarshini, as the scheme came to be known, quickly exceeded the government's own expectations. Official estimates indicate that free travel has added around five lakh women passengers to KSRTC buses every day.

Today, at bus stops across Kerala, one often hears women say, with unmistakable affection and a sense of ownership, "Our Priyadarshini is coming." A once obscure part of a former Prime Minister's name has become part of the everyday vocabulary of Malayalis.

A mixed bag
At times, the savings enjoyed by beneficiaries under the Priyadarshini scheme are far from trivial. On many inter-district routes – and even on longer journeys within larger districts – women can save ₹150 or more on a single round trip. For those in low-paid jobs far from home, this is more than a discount; it is a meaningful boost to disposable income amid high inflation.

Economically, Transport Minister C P John has a point: free bus travel for women can stimulate the economy by improving mobility and expanding opportunities for work and enterprise. Early evidence suggests that many women are using their newfound freedom of movement not merely to travel, but to earn an income, grow informal businesses, strengthen local markets, and, in the process, contribute to broader economic growth. A friend from Nedumangad put it best: "The Priyadarshini scheme has turned out to be a boon for our neighbourhood. We now get fresh, good-quality fish at affordable prices. A few women from our locality take the early morning KSRTC ordinary bus to Vizhinjam harbour, buy fish directly from the boats, keep what they need for their families, and sell the rest to their neighbours at a small profit. Everyone benefits."

According to reports from northern Kerala, enterprising women from Wayanad have begun making regular trips to Kuttiadi, renowned for its high-quality coconuts and coconut oil, to procure agricultural produce directly. Despite its undeniable benefits, the Priyadarshini scheme raises challenges that extend far beyond the financial commitment it requires of the state.

Though unintended, perhaps the most serious consequence of the Priyadarshini scheme is its threat to the delicate balance between KSRTC and private buses – an equilibrium that has long underpinned Kerala's extensive public transport network. As large numbers of women shift to KSRTC's free services, private buses are steadily losing a significant share of their passenger base. The recent strikes by private bus operators are more than mere protests: they are clear warnings that an established industry is undergoing an existential crisis.

The exceptionally high passenger volumes on Priyadarshini buses have also brought safety concerns into focus, particularly on Kerala's hill routes. Drivers on the Ponmudi and Chalakudy-Valparai routes have already raised concerns about the difficulty of manoeuvring and braking overcrowded buses – many of them ageing vehicles – around sharp bends on narrow roads flanked by deep gorges. At the other end of the spectrum lies the fate of Cheenikkas, a private bus on the Chalakudy-Valparai route. After 65 years of uninterrupted service, Cheenikkas was forced off the road because it could no longer earn enough to cover even its fuel costs following the introduction of the Priyadarshini scheme.

Here, the stakes extend far beyond the livelihoods of private bus owners and their employees. Despite operating on razor-thin margins, private buses have long served as the lifeline connecting Kerala's villages, towns, and cities – a level of connectivity that KSRTC alone cannot currently provide. Any disruption to this lifeline will have far-reaching consequences for travel and mobility across Kerala, particularly for low-income households that rely heavily on public transport.

The task before the Kerala government, therefore, is no longer to celebrate Priyadarshini's success, but to chart a new course for the scheme in light of its unintended consequences. Free travel for women must now be reimagined; the only question is how.

Montpellier model
Parts of Europe have embraced a universal model of zero-fare public transport, with Luxembourg and the Estonian capital, Tallinn, standing out as the best-known examples. Montpellier, a bustling Mediterranean city in southern France, offers Kerala a compelling lesson in how an election promise can be transformed into a well-planned, carefully implemented, and financially sustainable free public transport system. Instead of introducing zero-fare public transport in one stroke, the Montpellier Metropolis rolled out the scheme in phases between 2020 and 2023: weekends first, then weekday travel for residents under 18 and over 65 in the second year, and finally for all residents. This phased approach allowed the French metropolitan authorities to closely monitor occupancy levels and evaluate the scheme before extending it universally – precisely the kind of caution that was missing in Kerala's implementation of the Priyadarshini scheme.

Also deserving special mention is that free travel on buses and trams is available only to Montpellier residents. To access the benefit, residents must obtain a free travel pass by providing proof of identity and residence. Visitors, by contrast, are required to purchase regular public transport tickets.

A Montpellier-style phased rollout of the Priyadarshini scheme – beginning with a travel card for women who meet specified eligibility criteria, then gradually expanding it to all women – would have been more appropriate for Kerala. Advanced electronic ticketing machines are already in use across KSRTC buses, enabling passengers to purchase tickets using smart travel cards linked to the Chalo app. These travel cards can now be recharged on board using either cash or UPI payments.

A better way forward would be to initially limit Priyadarshini benefits to low-income and elderly women while integrating private buses into the programme by making Chalo ticketing machines mandatory. In a robustly decentralised state like Kerala, the government can confidently entrust panchayats with identifying eligible beneficiaries using ration card data and issuing them with Priyadarshini Travel Cards. With identical ticketing machines installed in both KSRTC and private buses, these cards could be recharged each month with a fixed amount – say, ₹1,000 – allowing eligible women to travel on either network while the government reimburses operators for the journeys actually recorded through the system.

Extending the Priyadarshini scheme to private buses is crucial to ensure that women across Kerala enjoy equal – or at least near-equal – access to the state's free travel scheme. At present, KSRTC's ordinary buses are distributed highly unevenly across the state's fourteen districts. Of its 3,125 ordinary buses, nearly 35% operate in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam alone.

Also worth noting is how Montpellier financed its flagship fare-free mobility programme: through a mobility levy imposed on companies with more than 10 employees. While this French financing model may not be practical for a less industrialised state like Kerala, it is certainly possible to devise a financially sustainable mechanism to support the Priyadarshini scheme rather than relying solely on government grants.

Diligence matters
Providing free travel for women on public transport is neither a misguided idea nor an undue burden on the state exchequer. Governments can – and often do – absorb financial losses when doing so serves a larger social purpose. A telling example can be found in Kerala itself. The state continues to support Kochi Metro Rail Limited despite monthly operating losses of around ₹35 crore. If the Kerala government is willing to absorb such losses for a modern mass rapid transit system serving a single metropolitan area, it is equally justified in budgeting ₹50 crore per month to provide free public transport for women across the state.

The real question is not whether women deserve free mobility, but whether the Priyadarshini scheme should have been introduced in a single stroke without first assessing its likely consequences, thereby pushing the private bus industry to the brink and jeopardising the public transport ecosystem that has evolved in Kerala over decades. A women's empowerment scheme named after Indira Gandhi – one of the most influential women leaders of the twentieth century, whose policies, including bank nationalisation, transformed the lives of millions of ordinary Indians – deserves to be designed and implemented with greater care and diligence.

Yes, Priyadarshini deserves better.