Before COVID-19, Roselien V., a domestic worker, used to take the bus to her workplace in Indiranagar, about 3 km away. Today, however, she can no longer do so since the bus frequency has dropped.
“It comes only once or twice a day and doesn’t stick to any scheduled time,” says Ms. Roselien, who now chooses to work only in places that are within walking distance of her home. “They pay less here than in Indiranagar,” she complains.
She was among the members of Alli Serona (Let’s meet there), a city-based collective working to highlight the voices of the informal workforce. “The Shakthi scheme is good, but we cannot use it if there are no buses,” says Ms. Roselien.
Mobility needs
Women are especially dependent on public transport to address their mobility needs, says P. Laksha Pathi, the executive director of APSA, an NGO that works in 75 urban slum communities in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, one of the organisations that form Alli Serona. “A lot of women say that before COVID-19, more buses were available and bus stops were more accessible,” he says.
Solving this issue is the rationale behind Alli Serona’s latest initiative: a collapsible mobile bus stop, which will journey through the city this month, hoping to demonstrate how the transportation needs of the informal sector can be met.
Accessible transport
“We wanted to do something creative to shout out that this community needs a bus stop, and what better way than an installation,” says Mallika Arya of Bengaluru Moving, a city-wide movement for sustainable, accessible and safe public transport, also part of the Alli Serona. “Karnataka has the Shakti scheme; buses are free ... If you can get a bus near your house, imagine the possibilities that can open up.”
The installation resembles a wooden, scaled-down version of a typical bus stop and is co-designed with the community at Hosa Nagar, their first stop. From Hosa Nagar, where it will be till October 7, the installation will move to Seegehalli and Priyanka Nagar on October 9 - 10, at the Thursday Sante Area on October 16-18, and at Byrasandra on October 20-21.
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