Pakistan bus network gives women a ticket to work and study

PESHAWAR:  The BRT, which began service in 2020, has proven to be extremely popular among women in the ultra-conservative city, where burqas and veils are standard female dress and 90 percent of women reported feeling unsafe using public transportation in a 2016 survey. Staring, whistling, and touching are common on buses or at bus stops in Pakistan, making many women wary of travelling alone and deterring many from seeking paid work, according to the World Bank.

In Peshawar, however, a quarter of the seats on the fleet of diesel-electric hybrid buses are dedicated for women, and the buses are outfitted with CCTV cameras, guards, and well-lit stations, making female passengers feel more at ease.

According to M. Umair Khan, a spokesman for TransPeshawar, the government-owned organization that manages the BRT, about 15% of the BRT's 2,000 personnel are female.

Such developments, he added, helped to explain why women now account for around 30% of bus riders in the city, up from only 2% two years ago.