A Life-Changing Gift
From Bihar, India’s poorest state, Nibha Kumari considers how a bicycle transformed her life when she reached fifteen. Thanks to a bike donated by the state government, she cycled two hours daily, six days a week, for two years, traveling from home to school and coaching lessons.
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I need a cycle to complete high school. It turned my life around, recalls now 27-year-old Nibha with thanks. Assigned initially to live with her aunt, 10km (six miles), her father from the Begusarai region had first sent her to attend a local elementary school. Mobility was a significant obstacle for females living in remote locations, combined with unreliable public transportation. Returning home for high school, Nibha grabbed the bike and rode the uneven local roads to keep her studies going.
Empowering Girls Through Mobility
Health worker Bhuvaneshwari Kumari of Begusarai notes the results of this program: “Girls have gained a lot of confidence after they started using bicycles to go to schools and coaching classes.” Nowadays, more and more of them are attending classes. Usually, they have free bicycles.
Recent studies confirm this point of view by stressing the transforming power of cycling on education for Indian rural youngsters. The study shows a startling rise in cycling among rural girls—more than double from 4.5% in 2007 to 11% in 2017, significantly lowering the gender disparity in this activity.
“This is a revolution quiet in nature. The researcher explains, “We call it a revolution since cycling levels increased among girls in a country which has high levels of gender inequality in terms of female mobility outside the home, in general, and for cycling, in particular.”
State Initiatives and Their Impact
Since 2004, state-run programs giving free bicycles have targeted girls to tackle their higher school dropout rates resulting from home responsibilities and the tiredness of lengthy treks. This strategy has worked well in India and other nations where bicycles have similarly increased girls’ enrollment and retention of education. Still, the scope of this Indian endeavor is unmatched.
Using a national education survey, researchers examined school-going children’s transportation choices ranging in age from five to seventeen. They investigated how well state-run programs offering free bicycles worked and how they affected riding numbers.
From 6.6% in 2007 to 11.2% in 2017, the proportion of all pupils riding to their schools nationally rose. While the survey indicated that riding to school was constant in urban regions, it had increased over the decade in rural areas. More autos combined with the dangerous conditions on Indian city roads have curtailed urban cycling rates.
Cycling Revolution in Rural India
With states like Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, and Chhattisgarh driving the expansion, India’s bicycle revolution has mostly been seen in rural regions. With populations almost on par with some of the biggest European nations, these states have witnessed a notable rise in cycling. According to the survey, longer-distance riding was more prevalent in rural than urban regions.
The latest Census in 2011 recorded cycling activity for the first time in India. Just 20% of those commuting to work said they mostly rely on riding. In the countryside, 21% cycled, whereas in cities, just 17%. Furthermore, compared to just 4.7% of working women, 21.7% of working males cycled to get to their jobs. The study notes, “This degree of gender gap in cycling is among the highest in the world, compared to international settings.”
A Changing Dynamic
The bicycle “has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world,” American suffragist Susan B. Anthony famously declared. It helps women feel independent and self-reliant. Many rural Indian ladies would find resonance in this attitude. Meanwhile, researchers are investigating whether declining employment possibilities and workforce dropout cause women to cycle less as they age.
After going to her in-laws’ house and following her marriage, Nibha Kumari ceased riding. She still leaves the house to train to be a teacher, but she muses on her prior journey and says, “I don’t need the cycle anymore.” Still, the influence of her bike during her academic years is evidence of the ability of mobility to change life.
