Sheikh Hasina’s ‘Women’s Bus’ Relaunched as ‘Pink Bus’

Staff Correspondent

The special women’s bus service was started almost three decades ago to ensure the safety, comfort and smooth travel of women in public transport and for working people and students. The ‘women’s bus’, which was started in 1997 on the instructions of the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and initiated by the then Minister of Communications Anwar Hossain Manzur, has now started a new journey under the name ‘Pink Bus’ after going through various initiatives, closures and revivals.

On Tuesday, August 18, BRTC launched this special bus service for women in a new format. This time, the initiative has not only changed the color of the bus, but also the management system. Initiatives have been taken to have female drivers and female conductors in this bus service designated for female passengers.

Three decades of various initiatives

The institutional journey of separate bus services for women in Bangladesh began in 1997. At the initiative of Anwar Hossain Manzur, the then Minister of Communications of the Awami League government, BRTC launched a separate women’s bus service for the safe transportation of working women and school and college students.

Then, in late 1998 or 1999, a pilot initiative was taken to launch another special bus service to facilitate the transportation of women workers working in the ready-made garment industry. However, these initiatives did not last long due to lack of long-term planning, maintenance, and management.

After the 2001 elections, the new government took another initiative to reduce women’s transportation problems as part of its first 100-day priority program. The discontinued women’s bus service was reorganized and launched on a large scale with government funding on important routes in and around Dhaka in early 2002.

The service ran well for the first two or three years, but later the maintenance and supervision of the leased buses became weak. Although the route was reorganized with 22 buses in August 2004, the number of buses gradually decreased to 11. At one point, the service became almost completely ineffective.

It didn’t work even after returning repeatedly.

In July 2008, BRTC re-launched the special women’s bus service with five buses on the Mirpur-Gulistan and Khilgaon Taltala-Gulistan routes. After 2009, efforts were made to revive the service under the initiative of the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, and by 2015, the number of operating buses increased to 12.

However, the service did not achieve the desired sustainability. By early 2024, the number of buses had decreased from seven to nine. Due to lack of adequate publicity, many female passengers were not aware of the routes and schedules of these buses. As a result, the buses often ran with a shortage of passengers and in some cases, they were used like regular buses by picking up male passengers.

Apart from government initiatives, there have been attempts to launch separate bus services for women passengers at the private level as well. In 2018, Rangs Group launched a separate bus service for women called ‘Dolonchapa’ in Dhaka. It became known as the first private women’s bus service in the country. Sohana Chowdhury, the daughter of the owner of Rangs Group, was one of the entrepreneurs of this initiative.

These 36-seater buses were manufactured by Eicher Company. The buses were equipped with CCTV cameras, first aid boxes and necessary facilities for disabled passengers. However, this private initiative was also not sustainable in the end.

 

This time it’s ‘Pink Bus’

Learning from the experience of previous initiatives, BRTC has now launched a new special women’s bus service. A total of 14 pink double-decker buses have been added to this service, which was launched on August 18.

Of these, 10 buses will run on different routes in Dhaka and Narayanganj, two in Bogra and two in Chittagong. The routes in Dhaka and Narayanganj regions include Notun Bazar-Motijheel, Taltala-Motijheel, Demra-GPO, Mirpur-Motijheel, Mohammadpur-Motijheel, Abdullahpur-Motijheel, Gazipur-Airport and Narayanganj-Dhaka.

This special bus will run on the Sherpur-Matidali route in Bogra and Kalurghat-Patenga route in Chittagong.

One of the most important aspects of this initiative is female drivers and female conductors. Initially, about 16 female drivers have been trained and prepared for this special service.

How sustainable will the new initiative be?

Nearly three decades of experience have shown that introducing separate buses for women is not enough. The previous initiatives have gradually weakened due to the lack of sufficient buses, regular maintenance, fixed schedules, effective publicity, route management, and strict supervision.

Effective government management and the hiring of female drivers and conductors, instead of a leasing system, set this initiative apart from previous ones. However, the success of the new service will depend on how regularly, reliably and sustainably it can be operated.

The ‘Pink Bus’ has been launched with the aim of increasing women’s employment as well as reducing harassment, unwanted touching and insecurity in public transport. It remains to be seen how successful the ‘Women’s Bus’, which started almost three decades ago, will be under a new name.