Schoolgirls in India are leading a quiet cycling revolution

Nibha Kumari, a resident of Bihar, India’s poorest state, remembers how a bicycle changed her life when she was 15 years old.

For two years, six days a week, he cycled for two hours every day from home to school and training classes and back, using a bicycle provided by the state government.

“If I didn’t have my cycle, I don’t think I would have finished high school. It changed my life,” said Nibha, now 27 years old.

The daughter of a farmer from Begusarai district, Nibha was sent to live with her aunt 10km (six kilometers) away to attend the nearest primary school. Walking was a challenge for the girls and public transport was unreliable.

When Nibha returned home from high school, she rode a bicycle, traveling through rural roads to pursue her education.

“The girls have gained a lot of confidence after they started using bicycles to go to schools and training courses. More and more people go to school now. Most of them have free bikes,” said Bhuvaneshwari Kumari, a health worker in Begusarai.

You are right. New peer reviewed learn published in the journal ScienceDirect reveals surprising information about school children and cycling in rural India.

A study by Srishti Agrawal, Adit Seth and Rahul Goel found that the most significant increase in cycling in India has occurred among rural girls – who more than doubled from 4.5% in 2007 to 11% in 2017 – reducing gender gap in this profession. .

“This is a silent revolution. We call it a revolution because cycling rates are increasing among girls in a country with high levels of gender inequality in terms of women’s travel outside the home, in general, and cycling, in particular,” said Ms. Agrawal.

Government programs to distribute free bicycles since 2004 have targeted girls, who have higher dropout rates than boys due to household chores and long hours of work. This approach is not unique to India – evidence from countries such as Colombia, Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe also shows that bicycles effectively increase girls’ school enrollment and retention. But the ratio here is not the same.

The three researchers – from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi and the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai – analyzed the travel patterns of school children aged 5-17 from a nationwide educational survey, looking at the effectiveness of government programs that provide free . bikes to students and evaluate their impact on cycling rates.

Nationally, the percentage of all students who bike to school increased from 6.6% in 2007 to 11.2% in 2017, they found.

Cycling to school in rural areas doubled over the decade, while in urban areas, it remained stable. India’s urban roads are notoriously unsafe, with low urban-to-school cycling rates linked to poor traffic safety and heavy traffic.

The cycling revolution in India is greatest in the villages, with states like Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, and Chhattisgarh leading the growth. These regions have populations comparable to other major European countries. Cycling was more common in remote rural areas than in cities, the study found.

India started reporting cycling behavior for the first time only in the last census in 2011. Only 20 percent of those who commuted to work outside the home reported cycling as their primary mode of transportation. But people in rural areas cycle more (21%) than in urban areas (17%).

Also, more working men (21.7%) than their female counterparts (4.7%) cycled to work. “Compared to international settings, this level of gender gap in cycling is among the highest in the world,” said Ms Agrawal.

American dissident Susan B Anthony famously said that the bicycle “did more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.” It gives women a sense of freedom and confidence”.

Researchers wonder if women’s cycles are slowing down as they get older because of declining job opportunities and the workforce leaving the workforce. Nibha stopped cycling after marriage and moved in with her in-laws. While walking outside the house as she trains to become a teacher, when asked about her commute, she simply says, “I don’t need a cycle anymore.”