Let there be no confusion about this… This proposal is entirely politically motivated, hopeful to win Aam Aadmi Party some votes in the upcoming assembly election.

But then the BJP supporters shouldn’t have the audacity to raise an objection against this, given how their party rolled ahead of general election 2019 with a handful of luring perks of their own for the voters.

(It has now become passé for governments to come up with last such last-minute theatric measures to hide their failure sand woo the voters.)

Letsdiskuss (Courtesy: India Today)

Coming to the most important part…

Whether the proposal of free buses and metro travel for women passengers in Delhi is a right move or not?

For some reason, to me, this reeks of another face of reservation with a slightly modern uplift to get the liberated population behind it.

You're picking a group and providing it special privileges. It doesn’t exactly sound like an "equal society" that we all dream of.

That said though, if you look at this proposal in the context of women security in Delhi, it does sound fairly good.

kejriwal and manish (Courtesy: Deccan Herald)

Foremost, at least someone is doing something to improve women security in Delhi, which literally haven't change even with all the hullabaloo after the Nirbhaya incident. So, personally, I am glad the government is taking a substantial step to improve things.

As for how effective will this proposal for free buses and metro travel be for the women passengers in Delhi… it does sound promising.

Women in Delhi (or anywhere in the country for that matter) prefer walking over commute just so to save some money. While in the morning this might seem "okay", in the evening this risks their safety. In addition, taking autos and pooling taxis aren’t necessarily very safe for them. So, making public transports for such women free does seem a positive change.

For this reason, personally, I am quite excited if the Delhi Government does manage to pull this off. It would be a one-of-a-kind thing in the country.

Of course, there could be a lot of problems in implementing this proposal. However, the AAP government believes it has figured it out.

The cost of such freebie will be passed on to DMRC. And the questions of over-crowding of metro doesn’t make sense because, at present, it serves much, much less people than what was its planned capacity.

metro (Courtesy: Business Today)

The opposition will sure object this. Many would draw this proposal parallel to odd-even car scheme that AAP government brought a few years back. There would be discussions that after a poor performance in all 7 Lok Sabhaseats has AAP now cowered to bring such desperate freebies.

But all these asides, it looks like a positive measure. Instead of forecasting whether "it will" be bad or good right from the go, we should give it a shot and see if it's an effective move for the safety and convenience of women passengers in Delhi.

Also read-What is wrong with Indian Journalism?