Rapid rise in students cycling to school in rural India, girls leading 'silent revolution': Research

There has been a rapid rise in the number of students cycling to school in rural areas and the "silent revolution" is being led by girls, especially in Bihar and West Bengal, new research has found.

The scholars at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and the Narsee Monji Institute of Management Studies also found strong evidence that bicycle distribution schemes (BDS) have helped increase cycling in states where these were implemented and the biggest beneficiaries were rural girls.

According to Srishti Agrawal, a PhD scholar at IIT-Delhi's Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre, gender norms, affordability of bicycles, distance to school, and safety on roads are likely the major determinants of cycling to school in India.

"Nationally, cycling to school levels increased from 6.6 per cent to 11.2 per cent over the decade (2007 to 2017). These levels nearly doubled in rural India (6.3 per cent to 12.3 per cent) while remaining stable (7.8 per cent to 8.3 per cent) in urban areas. Among the four population sub-groups, the largest increase in cycling was among girls in rural areas," Agrawal said.

The research published in the prestigious "Journal of Transport Geography" found that in a large majority of states, cycling share increased for both genders, with a greater increase among girls.

"The greatest increase in cycling among girls occurred in rural Bihar where levels increased eight-fold. In West Bengal, cycling among girls increased three-fold making it the state with the highest cycling levels among rural girls across the country.

"The cycling levels among girls almost doubled in the rural regions of the following Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. The cycling levels declined significantly in rural areas of Manipur for both genders," the report noted.

Aditi Seth from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai said the phenomenal rise in cycling levels across a large part of the country, is a "silent revolution".

"We use the term silent to not only indicate the absence of traffic noise, cycling is associated with, but also to highlight a complete lack of attention on this trend and its underlying reasons within the community of transport researchers, policymakers, or practitioners.

"For instance, we did not find a single research paper published in a transportation journal that studied the travel behaviour impact of bicycle distribution schemes, which we found are the drivers for the growth and widespread use of cycling in many states.

"We call it a revolution because 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," Seth said.

In urban areas, cycling levels either declined or remained constant in more than half of the states among both genders. In a few states, where cycling levels increased, there have been significant jumps.

For girls, cycling levels increased 10 times in Tripura and quadrupled in the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar and tripled in West Bengal.

For boys, cycling levels increased from no cycling to 5.8 per cent in Arunachal Pradesh, more than tripled in Delhi and doubled in the states of Chhattisgarh and West Bengal.

In urban areas of the states (Haryana, Maharashtra, and Punjab) where cycling share declined for both genders, the decline was greater for boys compared to girls.

"We found strong evidence of the positive impact of bicycle distribution schemes on cycling levels. Overall, cycling levels increased by an average of 3.6 percentage points in states with BDS and by 0.8 percentage points without BDS. States with the largest growth in cycling levels were often the ones where BDS was implemented, particularly in rural areas," said Rahul Goel, Assistant Professor, IIT-Delhi.

"Also, the effects of BDS were more prominent in rural areas, because a large proportion of students (more than 70 per cent) are enrolled in government schools, which are the type of schools that are eligible for BDS.

"In comparison, the majority of the students in urban areas are enrolled in private schools where BDS is not applicable and hence its impact is small," he added.