LAHORE: While the government of Punjab gears up to break stereotypes regarding women riding motorbikes, it appears that the taboos engorged in society are still holding the women back from taking advantage of this opportunity as the relevant body has had to extend the deadline for applications because of very limited interest shown in the “Women on Wheels” campaign.
The campaign “Women on Wheels” has been launched in collaboration with the Transport Department and Bank of Punjab. The campaign aims to provide women in Punjab with more than 3,000 customised motorbikes at subsidised rates through a 100 percent transparent balloting process. A total of Rs 9 million have been allocated for this project. Deadline for the application submission has again been extended for a month as not many applications have been received yet.
The campaign is geared towards the Punjab Chief Minister’s promise to empower women to serve as a powerful counter-narrative at a time when bigotry and attacks on women have dominated headlines in the country. The Strategic Reform Unit (SRU) introduced the Women-on-Wheels initiative in collaboration with the respective city traffic police and district governments in November 2015 to empower women through provision of free motorcycle trainings. The campaign has been launched in Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Sargodha where it has trained over 3,500 women free of cost and continues to train more candidates.
Strategic Reforms Unit, Chief Minister’s Office, Director General Salman Sufi , said, “The chief minister has initiated this plan to give the power of mobility to women of Punjab so that they can be true partners in progress and development of the province. To avail subsidised motorbikes, eligible women must be between the 18-40 years of age, possess a valid driving or learner’s licence and domiciled of Punjab. The candidate must also be either employed, business woman or student and permanently residing in any of the following five districts of the campaign’s pilot project i.e. Lahore, Multan, Sargodha, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi.”
He explained that the applicant’s income should not exceed Rs 30,000 and in case the aspirant was a student, her guardian or household’s monthly income should not exceed Rs 30,000. In case, the applicant is a student, express consent of parent/guardian on application form with one guarantor, where the guarantor can be a parent or guardian, is required. The applicant must possess a valid secondary school certificate/matriculation certificate.
Farwa, a student of bachelor’s, said, “When I heard about this scheme, I went to my family and asked them to buy me a bike. But my brother refused as he didn’t want me to ride a bike like a boy.”
Dr Muhammad Anwar, a noted sociologist, commenting on the low number of applications submitted so far said, “We live in a patriarchal society where power has stayed concentrated in the masculine domain.
The Women-on-Wheel is an innovation; and innovations are against the traditionalist status quo. Therefore, they are always resisted and opposed by the elder and traditionalist sections of a patriarchal society which coincidently also enjoy the most power. Therefore, these low application numbers are not unexpected.”
“Majority of females mostly need their brothers, fathers or husbands to drive them to work or study or anywhere else they wish to go. This innovation, therefore, is about empowering women worth independence, which is of mobility only apparently but is also tied to financial independence. Therefore, it is a step in the right direction and such early small numbers shouldn’t deter the policy makers from such initiatives,” he said. However, the reaction of the youth to innovation in any era has always been very positive and enthusiastic and that is what overcomes and reshapes sociological structures like a patriarchy towards equality, he said. He explained that the youth were flexible and open; they like to have their own experiences and make their own mistakes and successes.
While traditional barriers are a factor, the other challenge regarding this initiative is the training of women to ride the motorcycles. Fakeha, a trainee, said, “I wear full veil and I drive motorcycle as it is customised for ladies. It is very comfortable and it gives me confidence to go out by myself. The training was given by female instructor and they trained us properly. We have done practice and became experts. I have applied for the scheme and I have got my licence.”The government of the Punjab will be providing equity subsidy of Rs 24,975 and 100 percent mark-up on a motorbike. The applicant will make down payment of Rs 27,000 and payment in 12 easy installments of Rs 1,856 monthly. The motorbikes will be customised pink with additional features, including leg guards, gloves and a carrier bag.
Safina, a bike rider, said, “I am a mother of two children and live with my parents. At the beginning, it was very difficult to ride a bike because everyone used to look as something unusual is happening but now everyone is getting comfortable with a girl driving a bike on the roads. I got training but I cannot apply for this motorbike scheme as I don’t have enough money. The government should have given the bikes to female riders free of cost in the first phase to promote the initiative.”
She said that with these kinds of projects, the government should also start some behavioural sciences’ course to teach the younger generation to learn to respect women and their independence for the women driving a bike often have to face eave-teasing and harassment on roads.
Rai Ijaz, chief traffic officer, said, “It is a very innovative step towards empowering women. I have requested the authorities to make the training programme permanent because we need trained drivers on the roads. We have other programmes for women but demand is increasing. At least 10,000 to Rs 12,000 women get driving licence for car and motorbike every year. We are noticing a major escalation in the female driving-license holders after this scheme, but the numbers are yet to translate into reality on the roads.”
Ultimately the aim of the WoW campaign is to promote mobility of women in Punjab, empower them and make them independent individuals who can participate in decision-making processes on their own and exercise their faculties freely.
