Haryana education dept working on travel policy for women students

The state higher education department is devising a transport policy with an aim to provide safe travel facility to women students in government colleges.

The state higher education department is devising a transport policy with an aim to provide safe travel facility to women students in government colleges.

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In a letter addressed to principals of all government colleges, on Tuesday, the department said the objectives of the proposed scheme were to provide safe transportation, retain and improve gross enrolment ratio of women students under Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, increase interest of women students in higher education and make them employable and self-reliant.

The department has also sought information from colleges about those woman students who were already using the provision of reserved seats in general buses or availing the benefits of buses being run by the transport department exclusively for girls/women students.

However, all the principals and students HT spoke with said they were not aware of any “exclusive” bus service for its students.

Principal of the Dronacharya Government College, Pooja Khullar, said the college had no information about bus services for girl students run by the transport department. “We have informed the department that the college is not aware about any such policy and none of our students avail any such service. Thus, introduction of any new bus service, exclusively for girls, will greatly benefit students who live far from the college,” Khullar said.

Satyamanyu Yadav, principal of Government College in Sector 9, said girls from rural areas who attent government colleges often struggled with transportation.

Vijay Adlakha, principal of Government Girls College, Sector 14, said the department was taking stock of the existing situation and to put in place a more comprehensive and expansive transportation scheme. “Girls can get bus passes made and avail the reserved seats on the already existing bus routes. However, these routes are limited and the government plans to expand the network,” Adlakha said.

Women students said that a bus service exclusively for them would make them feel safe, and give an incentive to attend college more regularly. Sheetal Shehrawat, 21, said that commuting used to be an everyday struggle when she was pursuing her graduation from Girls College in Sector 14. “There was no facility from the college or the government. We would all the roadways buses, but getting a bus after 3pm was difficult. Even going to places like Pataudi or Sohna would be troublesome since the frequency of buses is low,” said Shehrawat, who is now pursuing her masters in zoology from Rohtak.

Neelam, a first-year master’s student at Girls College, Sector 14, said that due to lack of a safe bus service, many students like her had to reside in the hostel in Gurugram. “There is no good and relatively safe bus service to other districts. Girls either call their parents to pick and drop them, or, if resources permit, they prefer staying in the hostel so avoid the daily commute,” said Neelam, who belongs to Charkhi Dadri, but lives in the college hostel. She said a service for women students would be a step in the right direction.