It is heartening to watch videos of young and middle-aged women letting go of their apprehensions and learning how to ride a bicycle. Many women, who dreamt of learning how to ride but never had the opportunity to do so, have taken to pedalling in Kochi, empowered by an initiative that hopes to ensure inclusive mobility and safety for women.
During the pandemic, the environmental cost of transportation became largely apparent to people. For both safety and sustainability, many switched to cycling as a viable alternative to public transport. In fact, India’s Bicycle Mayors, associated with an Amsterdam-based social enterprise called BYCS, also promoted the #ResetWithCycling campaign, to urge everyone to turn to cycles, even in the longer run.
Many initiatives are giving greater momentum to India’s efforts to turn its cities into cycle-friendly destinations. One such initiative that combines environment with empowerment is ‘Cycle With Kochi’. Launched in 2021 to make Kochi the cycling capital of India, this project is spearheaded by the Kochi Municipal Corporation in collaboration with Cochin Smart City -CSML for Centre for Heritage, Environment & Development. It is technically supported by Sustainable Urban and Industrial Development and Sustainable Urban Transport Systems for Smart Cities in India (SMART-SUT) as part of the GIZ-led Transport Strategy Document developed by Kochi Municipal Corporation under SMART-SUT.
As part of the initiative which hopes to create an environmentally-aware generation of cyclists, women from Kudumbashree are being trained to commute to work via cycles. Kudumbashree, a community organisation of Neighbourhood Groups (NHGs) of women in Kerala, has been working towards empowering women from rural and urban areas. The Cycle Training Program, which was launched in January this year to empower women and school girls by giving them free cycling lessons, has so far trained over a hundred women in the city, many of whom had to depend on a male member of their family for their commute or walk to their workplace.
Kochi Municipal Corporation (KMC) also launched the Know Your Streets Challenge under ‘Cycle with Kochi’ which provides its citizens a platform to voice their inputs to the city’s vision of becoming India’s Cycling and Active Streets Capital. As a part of this challenge, citizens participate in identifying streets that are most suitable for cycling and other active modes and in identifying suitable locations for bicycle stands in Kochi by sharing experiences through the lens of a cyclist. This crowdsourced data will help chart the most cyclable routes in Kochi and create a community of active cyclists in the city.
