NASR WRITES

WHY FREE RIDES FOR WOMEN IN DELHI?

Recently, the Delhi government has decided to make public transport including the Metro and government buses free of cost for women. This has had a split opinion.
The government backed the decision with the pretext of 'women's safety'. Now, how is that justified? Mr. Kejriwal heading the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) says, " Public transport is considered the safest for women." It is also said that "the fair hike last year had forced a shift to less safe modes of transport." The government feels that this move will bring more women out of their houses.
The government also said that this move will induce fear in sexual harassers . Well, how does this economic privilege granted to women prevent sexual harassment against them? It is not a sanction against men.
On the contrary, this decision of the government has led public transport expert Chigurupati to say that despite the provision of separate seats for women in buses, men occupy them. He also said that the move could lead to resentment among men who cannot afford public transport and Chigurupati said that the government should cap the fares and eventually make public transport free for all. Now , obviously, this doesn't make sense with the government , since it is not practical economically ,the government would run into a huge loss.
Then, what is it all about?
While some call this decision a positive discrimination and some call it sexist, we see that Kejriwal's move was appreciated by a large number of those availing this privilege. Well, who will not want a free ride ? Does common man even think of anything beyond such a privilege? At this point, one should also not forget that the elections are at hand!