Women’s mobility in Pakistan – A hindrance towards economic empowerment

Currently, Pakistan ranks amongst the worst countries in the world when it comes to gender equity. According to the “Global Gender Gap Report 2024” which was published by World Economic Forum (WEF), Pakistan ranked 145th out of 146 countries on the gender parity index in the year 2024. Where the average gender gap in the world is declining, it has only been increasing further in Pakistan as women’s participation rate in the labour force has been declining further. It dropped from 24% in 2016 to 22% in 2021 and is well below the rates for countries with similar income levels. Despite women having a university degree in Pakistan, only about 25% of them are currently working outside their homes.

Pakistan is severely steeped in traditional norms and customs, with pronounced gender disparity, ensuring that societal norms and safety concerns that limit women’s mobility within the country are unfortunately sustained. In many urban areas, women frequently experience limited access to secure and dependable public transportation systems, limiting their ability to seek education and work outside their homes. Safety remains a major concern as episodes of harassment, catcalling, and assault on various modes of transportation contribute to feeling unsafe for women during their everyday commutes.  Furthermore, rural communities have fewer transportation options, limiting women’s access to growth and prosperity. It is the need of the hour to realize that men and women travel in different ways and have distinct demands, therefore their perceptions of space and navigation vary vastly. As a result, understanding women’s travel demands is critical to bridge the mobility gap in gender inclusion. Public transportation offers an affordable means for women to travel. However, according to research (Sajjad et al., 2017), women face numerous challenges related to safety, harassment, and concerns about their social reputation when using public transport which differ across various modes of public transportation. In contrast, private transportation services offer better accessibility and safety, but are more expensive than public transportation and do not attract public transit users, particularly females (Singh, 2020).

Public and Private Transportation for Women in Pakistan 

(Amber , Beyene Chichaibelu , & Hussain , 2023) worked on a policy brief by the International Growth Center (IGC) focusing on private and public transportation for women in Pakistan where Lahore was selected as the area of study to analyze the impact of transportation services on female labour force participation. Lahore has a wide array of public transport being used that consist of the Lahore metro bus, the orange line, speedo buses, wagons and motorcycle rickshaws and private transportation consisting of ride-hailing (Uber, Careem, inDrive), taxis and auto rickshaws. Using the synthetic control method (Abadie & Gerdeazabal, 2003) and labour force surveys from 1990-2020, they assessed the impact of metro bus and ride-hailing services on females’ labour force participation. They constructed a synthetic control series comparing it to the actual Lahore series, using data from 28 cities from all provinces till 2018 since the orange line train was launched in 2020. The Lahore metro bus system was inaugurated in 2013, providing 10 years of pre-intervention data. Further, the ride-hailing services like Uber and Careem were launched in Lahore and other cities around 2015-2016. However, since there was no Labour Force Survey conducted that year, 2014 was considered as the intervention year.

The results showed that the FLFP rates in the synthetic Lahore closely follow the trail of the real Lahore. The impact of the metro bus system is shown in Figure 1, left panel where the difference between the synthetic Lahore and actual Lahore shows the increase in the FLFP rates after the introduction of the metro bus system. This proves that metro buses provide an accessible and economical means of transportation, especially for women that are travelling for employment. And secondly, the presence of security personnel at metro stations along with sitting areas dedicated to women alone, somewhat reduces security concerns for women travelling. However, no such positive impact was observed of the ride-hailing services on FLFP (right panel, Figure 1).

Figure 1:
Female labour force participation in Lahore and synthetic Lahore under metro bus system and ride-hailing specifications. (IGC, Policy Brief 2023)

Public Transport or Ride-hailing: The better option?

In Pakistan, female market behaviour is driven mostly by necessity rather than intent, thus such ride-hailing services are ineffective in this situation as their customers come from high-income households. The analysis further showed that most of the women interviewed consider travelling via public transportation affordable and manageable. Whereas women using ride-hailing services consider it as an expensive option, but manageable if they have high-income.

Another important aspect is accessibility when it comes to transportation services. Most of the women considered their spatial position a significant influence on the kind of transportation they chose to avail. This suggests that the area they live in significantly determines their employment. While several women have access to metro stations within walking distance, others have to avail alternative options such as rickshaws and speedo buses. Thus, infrastructure challenges remain a major hindrance towards women’s mobility. Lastly, Metro buses are less time-consuming in terms of frequency and a dedicated route, whereas ride-hailing services often suffer from traffic jams and lack of availability on some routes.

Increasing female economic empowerment via public transport: Future Direction 

When addressing women’s mobility constraints, it is important to consider accessibility, affordability, and safety. Thus, there needs to be improvement in accessibility of public transportation and adding feeder routes in areas where there is a high probability of female work force leading to effective and time-saving modes of transportation. There is a need to increase safety and protection of female passengers in public transports, which can be achieved by increasing monitoring and reporting on these buses and increasing the number of female transport personnel. Encouraging the participation of women in the decision-making process related to transport infrastructure planning and design will further increase the chances of safety concerns being addressed when designing public transport.

For ride-hailing services, it is important to introduce more affordable services that cater to female employees. As part of the initiative, employers can offer vouchers and discounts as part of their employee benefits. There is a need to introduce apps that can work on basic mobile phones, not limiting to females that only have smartphones. Lastly, encouraging female ride-hailers will further encourage female passengers to opt for ride-hailing services.

Bibliography

Amber , H., Beyene Chichaibelu , B., & Hussain , A. (2023 ). Driving economic empowerment: Harnessing public and private transportation for women in Pakistan . IGC .

World Economic Forum. (2024). Global Gender Gap 2024. 

Zahid, R. (2023). Transportation Challenges for Women in Pakistan. Retrieved from Imarat Institute of Policy Studies : https://iips.com.pk/transportation-challenges-for-women-in-pakistan/

Zulfiqar, F. (2020). Public Transportation System and Female Mobility in Pakistan. Retrieved from Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).