E
very time Raksha Bandhan comes, Uttar Pradesh has presented a modest yet temporary gift for women—some free days for traveling by state buses.
This time around, however, that gift will become bigger and more long-term.
Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, has announced that his government is going to offer free travel by state buses to women above 60 years old at an event arranged to launch 150 diesel buses of the Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation.
“We are thinking of giving free travel facilities to sisters and mothers above 60 in our state road transport corporation buses.”
The news was not an offhand one; rather, it came up in the context of arrangements for traveling to the festival this year.
Given the occasion of Raksha Bandhan, the chief minister also announced free transport for women in UPSRTC buses for two days, from midnight of August 10 to midnight of August 12. The scheme, he said, would help women to "travel safely and reach their destination," adding that the move was made in order to provide sisters and mothers with "a safe environment."
This particular arrangement seems to be what has acted as the catalyst for the more expansive plan announced by Adityanath.
It is important to note that it was not the first time when the Uttar Pradesh government announced travel for Raksha Bandhan in August.
In addition to the earlier announcement, Yogi Adityanath ordered that female passengers accompanied by one companion would be allowed to travel for free in UPSRTC buses between the night of 27th August and night of 28th August, 2026, for Raksha Bandhan festival.
He instructed Transport Department, police, and district administration to arrange everything so that women can return home conveniently and safely and at the same time ordered to keep the work of Anti Romeo Squads ongoing and traffic management proper during rush.
This policy of free travel was not made without taking into account the other security measures that needed to be provided for women in Uttar Pradesh, and the two policies had been made as part of one announcement by CM Adityanath.
As a part of the free travel facilities, the chief minister directed that the auto rickshaws and taxis should be verified, and steps must be taken to ensure safety of women passengers, the Transport and Police departments working in tandem for this purpose.
This strategy of providing free mobility while enforcing the law to provide security is a pattern that the government of Uttar Pradesh has followed many times this year.
In addition to mere waiver of fares, UPSRTC has also increased its fleet capacity to cope with the sudden demand.
In order to deal with the anticipated rush during the festival of Raksha Bandhan, extra buses would be run by UPSRTC from August 26 till August 31. These buses would facilitate the citizens to reach their destinations to meet their families during the festival.
Moreover, a control room has also been established which would work on a 24-hour basis to keep a watch on bus operations as well as provide help to the commuters during the special travel season.
It is not unique to Uttar Pradesh to provide such a facility in form of providing free buses for women during the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.
In Haryana, women and children up to the age of 15 years are provided free travel by the government on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan every year for almost two decades now. According to the Haryana government, more than seven lakh women and children have been provided this facility in one year recently. This facility was discontinued just once, and that was due to the COVID-19 pandemic where the number of buses available decreased.
This scheme of the Haryana government faced strong political backlash due to the same reason.
The governments of Bihar and Chandigarh UT are also running similar schemes in a smaller scale.
It is what separates UP’s new initiative from these other initiatives that are tied to a particular festival.
In contrast to a limited-time offer for the two days of the festival, the program that Adityanath spoke about addresses an ongoing concern, which is the lack of consistent and affordable public transportation services for the elderly women who may be physically unable to move or financially able to pay for it. In comparison to these other programs, which are tied to a particular event, the ongoing age-based exemption provides a means of removing an obstacle for the women’s ability to travel in their daily life.
This announcement was made within the context of a bigger idea of improvement of the state's transport infrastructure.
Also at the same function, Adityanath made a plea to develop "world class" bus stations with good facilities such as accommodation, restaurants, and clean toilets, saying if it is possible to develop "world class" airports, then there is no reason not to do the same thing with the bus stations.
Moreover, he advocated practical changes such as replacing old buses, preparing annual health records of the drivers, and associating the state transport workshops with ITIs where youngsters can be trained under transport department infrastructure.
Adityanath also made a parallel between UPSRTC's role in one of the most challenging logistics operations faced by the state in recent times.
He said that during the lockdown due to Coronavirus pandemic, the buses of the transport department transported the migrant laborers coming from other parts of the country to their destination, which was the biggest passenger movement for free since the Kumbh Mela of 2019.
The invocation of such an instance indicates that the state considers this program involving senior citizens as another aspect of UPSRTC's identity, which involves moving people for free rather than merely a business-oriented transport service.
Although Adityanath's comment did provide confirmation that the scheme will be launched by the state government "very soon," neither a specific launch date nor the documentation procedure to implement it have been revealed.
Taking into account the precedent of introducing the travel facilities related to Raksha Bandhan in UP and the manner of their introduction – initially a 48-hour travel facility was introduced followed some time after by the provision to allow each woman traveler to bring one companion – one might expect similar progress from the senior citizens' scheme.
