EVENT RECAP: Uddheshya: Mainstreaming Gender from Ideas to Action

Hosted under the Forum for Decarbonising Transport

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Hosted under the Forum for Decarbonising Transport .

About Uddheshya

WRI India organized a one-day conference, Uddheshya, on 22nd March 2023, to discuss and deliberate on reimagining transport and infrastructure in Indian cities, with a focus on gender-inclusivity and achieving equitable access to mobility and opportunities.

The conference saw more than 80 gender experts, transport planners, researchers, practitioners, civil society representatives and other stakeholders connect on the importance of gender-disaggregated data in developing inclusive public transport and public spaces and the inclusion of more women’s voices in critical decision-making and planning in the transport sector.

The conference was convened under the aegis of the Forum for Decarbonising Transport – a NITI Aayog-led platform that is part of the NDC Transport Initiative for Asia (NDC-TIA) to enable more ambitious and inclusive transport decarbonisation action. NDC-TIA, in turn, is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI), under the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) with the Federal Ministry of Environment and the Federal Foreign Office (AA) of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Conference Attendees

The plenary session featured Dr Philip Ackermann (German Ambassador to India and Bhutan), Mr. Amitabh Kant (G20 Sherpa, India), Ms. D Thara (Additional Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India), Dr Vandana Kumar (Additional Secretary, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, Government of India), and Dr Sudeshna Chatterjee (Program Director, Research, WRI India).

Other prominent speakers who participated include Mr. Sudhendu Jyoti Sinha (Advisor, NITI Aayog), Shri KR Jyotilal, IAS (Additional Chief Secretary, Power Dept, Kerala), Ms. Garima Gupta, IAS (Managing Director, Shahjahanabad Redevelopment Corporation), Ms. Urda Eichhorst (Program Director, NDC-TIA), Ms. Rebecca Fisher (Drive Electric Campaign Director), Ms. Aishwarya Raman (Executive Director, OMI Foundation), Dr. Kalpana Vishwanath (Co-founder and CEO, Safetipin), Ms. Sonal Shah (Founder, The Urban Catalysts) and Mr. Madhav Pai (Interim CEO and Executive Director, WRI India).

To gain a better understanding of women's travel patterns and the mobility challenges they face, cities must consider collecting gender-disaggregated commuter data as an integral component of all policy and planning processes.

Five key takeaways from Uddheshya 2023:

To gain a better understanding of women's travel patterns and the mobility challenges they face, cities must consider collecting gender-disaggregated commuter data as an integral component of all policy and planning processes. Apart from helping develop gender-responsive interventions, this database can also support public transit agencies in creating robust strategies to enhance women's participation in the workforce and address gender-blind regulations that impede women from entering, or continuing, in the transport workforce.
Incorporating women's representation at every phase of transport and urban planning, from policymaking to on-ground implementation, is essential. This can be undertaken by establishing gender working groups in public transit agencies, fostering inclusive planning through community participation and developing gender-sensitive indicators to track the growth of transport systems in cities. These continued and deliberate efforts will greatly contribute towards building more inclusive and equitable transport systems.
The emerging gig economy and electric mobility sectors offer increased opportunities to integrate women into a traditionally male-dominated transport workforce. Large-scale capacity building and training, creating women-friendly work environments, encouraging more girls to pursue technical courses and removal of gender-blind policy barriers can facilitate women's entry into the transport workforce. As the transport industry moves from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs), targeted skilling efforts, from formal education to vocational training, are crucial to ensure gender parity and a just transition of the workforce.
Gender budgeting is a tool used by governments to ensure that public funds are allocated to promote gender equality and women's empowerment. This is particularly effective when gender targets and specific budgets are incorporated into the transportation sector. Women entrepreneurs, in the transport sector, often face challenges in accessing financing. Creating financial products and de-risking finance models that cater to their needs can help increase access to funding. It's also important for mobility enterprises, with a strong gender focus, to incorporate women's preferences in funding schemes to ensure that their initiatives are economically viable.
Gender inclusive initiatives have been implemented in some states and cities in India. For instance, two of Mumbai’s metro stations are entirely managed by women, while tenders for electric bus procurement in India mandate a 25% participation from women as drivers, depot and factory staff. While these initiatives are laudable, there is a need to accelerate efforts to create a sustained impact. Taking a programmatic approach to foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing and other collaborative measures can help institutionalize gender inclusivity among various actors. Thus, it is crucial to share ideas and best practices among public transit agencies, ride-hailing companies, para-transit unions, and other stakeholders at different levels.

Mr. Amitabh Kan (G20 Sherpa, India) is pictured here, second from the right.

Incorporating women's voices and representation at every phase of transport and urban planning will help build more inclusive and equitable transport systems in India. As suggested by Mr. Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa, India said at Uddheshya:

“India’s G20 presidency has put women-led-development right in the forefront. We believe that this is the time to focus on women, especially now, when there are more women than men in India. The latest National Family Health Survey finds that there are 1,022 women for every 1,000 men in India. It will not be possible to make India a $5 trillion economy without women playing a pivotal role.”