Ensuring the Pink Bus Doesn’t Get Lost in the Dark
The newly launched women-only Pink Bus service by the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) is a vital step toward safe mobility.
However, to prevent it from fading into obscurity like past transport experiments, authorities must guarantee adequate fleet expansion, strict scheduling, and systematic safety reforms across the entire public transit network.
For women, navigating the streets of Dhaka remains a daily battle. Working women must reach their offices, students need to get to their educational institutions, and homemakers have to step out to attend to household needs.
But, the moment they board public transport, many of them are gripped by a sense of unsettling anxiety. And the uncertainty of transport after dark makes urban life difficult for women.
Against this backdrop, the initiative to launch BRTC’s ‘Pink Bus’ service on nine routes in the capital is undoubtedly promising.
The decision to employ women as drivers and conductors has made this initiative even more significant. It could pave the way for women’s employment in the transport sector while simultaneously ensuring safe travel for them.
This service has also been announced to extend to Bogura and Chattogram, beyond Dhaka. Consequently, this could mark the beginning of a broader social transformation, rather than remaining merely an initiative to launch a few buses.
However, Bangladesh’s development experience compels us to be cautious, even as we remain optimistic.
Many people-friendly initiatives have been taken by different governments at different times.
They have been inaugurated with great fanfare, promoted, and for a while, there has been enthusiasm among the people.
But later, due to weakness in regular operation, maintenance, financing or management, many of those initiatives have lost their importance.
It is crucial to take the past experiences into account when planning for the future of the ‘Pink Bus’ service.
It is also essential to formulate routes and schedules based on information regarding which routes are frequently used by women.
The initiative to recruit female drivers and conductors is of great importance. However, it is essential to ensure their training, a safe working environment, fair wages, and opportunities for professional advancement, otherwise, the core objective of the initiative will be undermined.
We hope that the noble objective behind the launch of the ‘Pink Bus’ service will not be thwarted. Women constitute half of our population; they represent half of our sky. If half the sky remains shrouded in darkness, it bodes ill for the country.
Its success is not merely the success of a transport service; it is a valuable move towards providing relief, comfort, and a sense of security to ‘half the sky’.
