‘Shakti’ Effect: School kids struggle to board crowded KSRTC buses

Hunsur: While the Congress Government’s ‘Shakti’ scheme, which provides free bus travel for women, has significantly increased the daily ridership of Karnataka’s four Road Transport Corporations by an average of 28 percent, it has created new challenges for students who rely on KSRTC buses for their commute.

The surge in ridership has resulted in overcrowding, particularly in city and sub-urban buses, with instances of buses carrying well over 100 to 110 passengers, exceeding their intended capacity.

This overcrowding has left no place for School children and it is a struggle for them to reach their Schools on time.

The problem is worsened by the limited number of KSRTC buses and some students were forced to dangerously stand on the bus footboard throughout their journey.

Women, who used to constitute only half of the passengers until recently, now occupy the entire bus and students are struggling to enter the crowded buses. All the buses are packed from 6 am to 9 am — the time when Schools and Colleges start — and from 3 pm to 6 pm — when schools close for the day. Buses are considerably free only from 10.30 am to 2.30 pm.

Due to unavailability of additional buses and other means of transport, most students reach their educational institutions beyond 9.45 am now and reach home after 8 pm, exhausted.  Seeing their plight, parents have now requested the Government to provide separate bus facilities for School and College students.

There is hardly any space even for men though the Government had promised to reserve 50 percent of the seats to male passengers. Previously, a significant number of people, including women, used to travel in various vehicles such as taxis, vans, minivans and autos, primarily due to the convenience, time factor and lower fares. Women also used these vehicles to commute to private garment factories in Mysuru from many villages in Hunsur and K.R. Nagar.

Every day, over 3,500 women travel to Mysuru to work in various factories and garment units in Mysuru in over 100 vans, mini vans, modified autos and pick-up vehicles and each vehicle carries 20 to 30 passengers. They pay a nominal charge as the means of transport is convenient and they are at times picked up from the nearest stops from their homes.

Now all the women travellers have switched to KSRTC buses. During peak hours, say from 6 am to 9 am, there are only 8 to 10 buses (shuttle service) on the K.R. Nagar-Hunsur-Mysuru route and all the women climb them, jostling for space.  

In the absence of women passengers, these vans, autos and pick-up vehicles are either running with only two or three male passengers or are parked on the roadsides in Hunsur. “Now husbands too have stopped giving rides to their wives as women have the option of free travel. This scheme has ruined our lives and we have vehicle loans to repay,” Siddu, a pick-up vehicle driver told Star of Mysore.