ARTICLE FROM THE BOOK:
Cyclists & Cycling Around the World – Creating Liveable
andBikeable
CitiesCyclists& Cycling
Aroundthe World
Edited by Juan Carlos Dextre, Mike Hughes & Lotte Bech
Published by Fondo Editorial, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2013
ISBN: 978-612-4146-55-8

Socio-Economic Impact of the Cycle – A
gendered social perspective of cycling in India
By Dr. Anvita Arora, Managing Director and CEO of Innovative TransportSolutions (iTrans)

BackgroundThe cycle and its many variants like the three-wheel passenger cycle rickshaw andgoods trolleys, and the four-wheel vendor carts are an important mode of transport inIndian cities. Bicycle use in medium and large Indian cities varies from 7-15% in large
cities to 13-21% in medium and small cities. Its high ownership, low cost and easy use
attributes make it a desirable mode of transport for students and low income workers. A
large amount of utility cycling is present in Indian cities because the bicycle is the mostaffordable form of transport available to low income households.
Most of the medium and large cities in India have about 56% to 72% trips which are shorttrips (below 5km trip length), offering a huge potential for bicycle use. The close vicinity

Girls cycling to college in asmall city of Raipur (They cover
their face against the sun andpollution)
Photo: Gerhard Menkoff

55

Pictures of the cyclists in India,
delivering furniture, kerosene
and milk!

of academic institutions (mostly 3-4 km), easy ridership, no license requirement and nofuel requirement are all factors which make it an attractive mode of travel for students.
Parking facilities, safety and ease of travel are some of the most important factors which
seem to govern female bicycle ridership. One of the reasons for the small share of bicycle
trips in large cities is the presence of hostile conditions for cyclists.

Who is cycling?
The picture of a cyclist in India is not of a athletic young male on two wheels weaving
aggressively through the traffic in full cycling gear or going for a weekend ride through thegreen countryside for health. The cyclist in India is service provider from the formal sector(postman, electricity line repairman) or the informal sector (gardener, domestic worker,
mason, security guard). The cyclist is a delivery man – delivering milk, restaurant food,mineral water, cooking gas cylinders; a street vendor – selling vegetables, groceries, sweets.

56

Cyclists & Cycling Around the World

Conflict on the left (slow moving)lane of the road

Even the cycle is not always the two-wheeled bicycle. It is often adapted to 3 or 4 wheels
to carry passengers (passenger rickshaw), to ferry goods (goods rickshaw), or to sell stuff(vending trolley). A cycle is not only a means of transport to access livelihood, it is ameans of livelihood by itself.

Conflict for space
The manner in which the road space is shared is a reflection of the power and identity
struggles of the society. The fact that the big SUV is offended if a small car overtakes it,
the car pushes the motorcycle, and the motorcycle runs the cyclist off the road is thekind of road user behaviour that acknowledges the marginal position of the cyclist in
the order of things. The cycle is in conflict with all other modes of transport including
pedestrians for space on the road, some conflicts leading to lowered speeds and abuses
but some leading to the death of the cyclists.

57

Gender and poverty dimensions of mobility
Understanding of gender issues in the transport context is of vital relevance, since
women are estimated to account for 70% of those living in poverty worldwide (UNDP,1995). The growing literature on women and transport has also clearly shown that theytend to have different travel needs deriving from the multiple tasks they must performin their households and in their communities (Greico and Turner, 1997). Low-income
women tend also to be much less mobile than men in the same socio-economic groups.
They are more dependent on walking and tend to have less access to any bicycles or
motorcycles in a household. Social restrictions hinder women’s mobility in many cultures(Gopalan, 1998). Efforts to increase the mobility of poor women may face stiff resistancefrom those who feel threatened or offended by such direct empowerment of women(UNDP 1998). Sexual harassment (and worse) in streets and on public transport is acommon occurrence. Since many more women than men are the care-givers of frail orelderly people, people with disabilities and of children, the transport problems of thesedisadvantaged groups also impact disproportionately on women. Poverty, of course,compounds each of these disadvantages.
Accessibility is a major barrier to the upliftment of women, especially in a country like
India where the socio-economic constructs ensure that women are the last persons tohave access to the mode of transports in the households or money to travel. Added tothis, the indifferent public transport services and the safety risks that women incur on thestreets ensure that women are unable to travel to access their primary needs of health,education and livelihood.
Sustainability can only be achieved by preserving diversity. Development experience
world-wide shows that gender based policies become all inclusive. If the mobility
policies too are gender-centered they will target the mobility of the entire society. Thiscan be equated with the UN education slogan ‘educating one woman will educate theentire family’.
A research study (Singh & Anand, 2001) showed that women’s greater domestic
responsibilities coupled with their weaker access to household resources have significant
consequences for their transport and travel status. The women of lower income
households experience greater transport deprivations as compared with men. Women
were to be found as the users of the less expensive and slower modes of transport
when their intensive household schedules (women are time-poor as compared to themen) would be better served by access to faster modes. The survey results indicatethat women spend more time traveling on slower modes − the faster and more flexible
modes being more expensive. Their time-poverty forces them to look for work at shorter
distances from their home thus decreasing their choices and opportunities. The survey
results illustrated that women lack mobility in the city due to gender-based restrictions,58

Cyclists & Cycling Around the World

inferior access to transport means, high dependence on low quality public transport, lackof availability of affordable modes of travel, and that lack of mobility is inextricably linked
to poverty of women in so much that:- It is caused by their poverty (of both time and resources)- It becomes the indicator of their poverty (as illustrated by their work force participationand the nature of jobs they are able to access)- It causes their poverty (by becoming a disabling factor to their access to livelihood)
The study also showed that while the bicycle was the mode of transport for the poor,
where distances exceeded walking limits and bus fares were too expensive in relation
to their income, not one woman bicycled to work. The women constituted 25% of theworking population and mostly walked to work or used buses even though the fares
were too high.

Why do the women not bicycle?
Patriarchy: Patriarchy is an overarching concept influencing local power relationships
and cultures. It is therefore directly related to the gendered division of labour in bothmodern and traditional societies, with the household (or family) unit as the central
perpetuator of the societal system. Men, in their superior power position within thehousehold hierarchy, tend to appropriate the most efficient means of transport forthemselves. In this interpretation, cars, motorcycles, bicycles or animal carts are mainly
seen as household assets and resources over which men, as the most powerful membersof the household, would obviously seek to maintain control. Given the lower levels of
overall motorization in less developed countries, power struggles are more likely to occur
even over non-motorized forms of transport.
Woman cycling on the side of atruck on unpaved shoulder
Photograph by IDS, 2005

59

Young girl cycling back fromwork on a hot afternoon inPanjim, Goa to avoid peak hourcongestion later

No dignity for the cyclists: Bicycles, in India, are invisible modes driven by people whoare invisible in the city. So government policies and plans do not provide space for cyclists
on the roads. Over the last few years, however, efforts are being made by organizations
such as TRIPP, IIT, Delhi to redesign road spaces to include the non-motorised. They havedone a lot of work in sensitising the planners and the policy makers toward the needand importance of the non-motorised modes of transport. However, what is difficult tocombat is the low image of the bicycle. Bicycles are the mode of the poor and cyclists are
captive riders in India – that is, they have no choice. So issues of equity and dignity areclosely linked to the bicycle use on our roads.
No space on the road: The reality today is that cyclists have no space on the roads,
especially in the bigger cities. They are forced to compete for space with larger, highspeed motor vehicles (refer figure 1) increasing their vulnerability to accidents and roadrage. Since there is no legitimate space for the cyclists, some men on the bicycles may
be to adapt to aggressive/defensive driving to survive (though their exposure is no less),
women find it tougher to undergo this struggle on a daily basis.
Gender biased infrastructure design: There is very little infrastructure existing for
cyclists in general in Indian cities and it is all designed for the anthropometrics of young
male cyclists. Women cycling with children and shopping bags may need more widthof the track and safe space at parking areas where they can unload children and bags
comfortably. They would have longer acceleration times and need longer leads at green
phases of the signals.
Uncomfortable bicycles: The male cycles, more easily available in the market, especiallysecond-hand, are completely unsuitable for women. If they are wearing skirts or saris

60Cyclists & Cycling Around the WorldGirls cycling in Alwar on an unsafe
intersection. They would rather
cycle then subject themselves to theharassment of bad public transportthen it is impossible for them to ride them. The cheapest ladies bicycle is more expensive
than the cheapest male bicycle. If the household wants to buy bicycles they will buy themale bicycles that all the males in the house can use rather than a ladies bicycle which aman will never ride on for fear of ridicule.
Harassment and abuse of women: The entire transport infrastructure of our cities,
be it the badly lit subways, unusable overhead bridges, absurdly high sidewalks,
uncomfortable bus shelters, badly lit walkways, roads in a state of disrepair; all contributeto a very hostile street environment for the women which actively disables their mobility.
Cycling in these badly lit roads with potholes is an invitation to jeering comments andabuse for the women on the road. In fact, as is with the car drivers (the behaviour of male
car drivers towards their female counterparts), male cyclists will always try to overtakeand ridicule female cyclists, to establish their dominance on the road.

Experiences from the field
In 2005, with the Institute for Democracy and Sustainability (IDS), we concluded a yearlong study on the bicycle users and non-users in the city of Delhi. Of the total of 2000
people interviewed across Delhi, 1000 people were interviewed from the low-income
working class section of the populace, and of them only two bicycle users were women.
Amongst the non-users several of the women knew how to bicycle and had bicycled intheir home towns or villages, but they stopped cycling after migrating to Delhi.
This argument is borne out by the fact that there is a higher percentage of womenbicycling in smaller cities and towns (which have higher share of both male and female
cyclists). Alwar, a small city in North India, with a population of less than 3 million, claims

61to have an 80% share of bicycling. Figure 6 shows girls cycling in an arterial street, acommon sight in Alwar.
In the year 2005-2006, under the aegis of a fellowship from the Environment Equity andJustice partnership (EEJP), we conducted a small pilot study in a low-income settlementin South Delhi amongst a group of domestic workers. These women had the uniquecharacteristic that they bicycled to work. The studies showed that they had been taught
bicycling by their husbands so that they could go to more apartments and do houseworkrather than wasting time in walking or money in taking the public transport. The survey
results showed that the increased mobility had increased their income and hence theirbargaining power in the households and the community. It had given them more
confidence and freedom to work and educate their children. The study tried to understandthe problems and barriers these women face on the road and in the community. Box 1 isthe transcription of an interview with a domestic worker, Uma Muniyan who bicycles towork. Her narrative highlight several issues raised in this paper.

Interview of Uma Muniyan
Be it morning or evening or the afternoon – the major intersections in VasantKunj, New Delhi see a continuous stream of small groups of women – some on thebicycle and some on foot. One of these women is Uma Muniyan, a Bengali womanof 30 years. She is originally from Hoogly in Bengal. She still finds it difficult to speak
Hindi fluently and rides her bicycle to work wearing her sari.
She says “I have been working for the last year as a maid-servant. I used to walk towork earlier and was very tired by the end of the day. The flats of Vasant Kunj are far
from Shankar camp (the informal settlement where she lives) and there is no public
transport system connecting them. We are forced to use personal vehicles. There isno option but to walk or bicycle. We do not earn enough to buy a scooter. So, for us,
the best option is to buy a bicycle. That is the reason I bought a bicycle 3 monthsback.”“Why did you not buy a bicycle before this?”“Because of lack of funds. Today I work in two flats, earlier I worked in only one.
My husband, Swadesh Muniyan, cleans cars belonging to the flat-owners. He also
earns 1000-1500 Rupees (1USD= 55 Indian Rupees) a month. I earn 1300 rupees amonth – 700 from one place and 600 from the other. So, we have to really plan oursavings and expenditure”

62Cyclists & Cycling Around the WorldUma Muniyan“What does the bicycle mean for your future?”“Earnings increase with owning a bicycle. The bicycle makes it easy to work in 2-3
places. If the flats are located far apart, then too it is not difficult to manage. On
foot, even working at one place leaves one very tired at the end of the day.”“Do feel any hesitation or discomfort in cycling?”
No, I do not feel any hesitation. Though, men still do not like to see women cycling,
but the circumstances pressurize the men to teach their women to cycle. Theyknow that if we work at more flats, we will be able to earn more, and a bicycle isnecessary for that.”“Did you learn bicycling after coming to Delhi?”“No, I learnt to bicycle at a very young age. The learning at that time is helping me now.”“Being a woman, do you face any problems while bicycling?”“No problem at all. The ladies cycles are comfortable to ride on even with saris. With
regard to the safety of women on the roads, the bicycle has very little to do with it.
Men who make abusive comments will keep on doing that – whether the woman
is on foot or on the bicycle or on a bus. While working in these flats we have to bealert – who knows what is there in anybody’s mind.”

63

Domestic worker doing herhousehold chores like fetchingwater on the bicycle

The increasing urbanization is leading to changes in lifestyle for the families. In traditional
joint families there was always somebody staying at home, especially women. So somepeople went out for jobs and business and the rest helped with the household chores.
Now the situation has changed completely and both men and women are so busy with
their jobs and businesses, that they do not have time to do their household chores likewashing clothes and utensils, getting vegetables and milk from the market etc. They thenneed these maid servants, who help to make their daily lives comfortable and convenient.
These maid-servants come from far-off areas of the country and often belong to the very
poor and tribal sections. Some of them live in the houses they work for. However, mostmaid-servants (like Uma Muniyan) work part-time. They work in one or more households.
Usually they work for 2-3 hours in the morning and 2-3 hours in the evening. Most ofthese maid servants live in the slum settlements and, according to their affordability,
distance from home to work, availability of transport etc., decide on which mode to use
to travel to work. The bicycle empowers them with independent mobility, freedom ofchoice and enables them to better their economic status. Apart from access to livelihood,the bicycle gives them efficiency in handling their daily chores too.
Anvita Arora
anvitaa@gmail.com or anvitaa@itrans.co.in64