World Bank’s Gender Toolkit

December 9, 2022

The “Toolkit on Enabling Gender Responsive Urban Mobility and Public Spaces in India” was launched at a session organized by the World Bank and the Chennai Urban Metropolitan Transport Authority. This toolkit has practical tools that can help policymakers and private or community-based organizations ensure safe and inclusive public spaces and public transport for women in India.

Why was the toolkit launched?

The aim of the World Bank’s toolkit is to make urban mobility and design gender inclusive. Its purpose is to guide Indian cities to design public transport and urban spaces that can support women’s traveling requirements. Traditionally, public transport services are not designed while keeping in mind the safety of women and their specific travel requirements This significantly limits women’s access to work, education, and life choices. Currently, India has among the lowest female labour force participation rates in the world at 22.8 per cent in 2019-20.

The toolkit was designed in response to a 2019 World Bank-supported survey of Mumbai. The survey found that, between 2004 and 2019, men shifted to two-wheelers to commute to work, while women used auto-rickshaws or taxis, which are costlier than two-wheelers.

Women are among the largest users of public transport across Indian cities. Around 84 percent of trips made by women are estimated to be by public transport. They prefer slower means of transport since faster alternatives are costly. Lack of safety is deterring women from stepping out, reducing their presence in public spaces.

What are the key features of the Gender Toolkit?

The Gender Toolkit is a two-volume guide that proposes a 4-pillar implementation framework for urban bodies to design a gender-responsive urban mobility and public spaces programme.
The first pillar focuses on the assessment of ground situation, including the understanding of gender differences in mobility patterns, safety concerns, and gaps in policies and infrastructure.
The second pillar recommends integrating gender as a lens while planning and promoting gender inclusivity among policymakers and institutions. It calls for including gender-related perspectives in the new and existing transport policies and plans.
The third pillar focuses on awareness creation and capacity building and the fourth pillar emphasises strengthening the infrastructure in a way that it is gender inclusive.
It also calls for increase women’s representation in decision-making of key institutions like urban local bodies and public transport authorities. Currently, women are poorly represented as frontline staff in public transport, making women feel unsafe in public transport.
It also recommends several interventions like adequate streetlighting, improved walking and cycling tracks for the benefit of women who rely on non-motorized transport.
Reducing the fare of public transport can boost ridership for women and persons of other genders.
Strong grievance redressal mechanism must be put in place for fast-tracking sexual harassment complaints.

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