NLSIU Faculty Dr. Vijayamba R is a co-investigator in a project titled “Bus, benefits and beyond: A comprehensive study of transport equity through Karnataka’s Shakti Scheme.” The project is the recipient of Directorate of Urban Land Transport, Urban Development Department, Government of Karnataka’s annual research program (ASPIRE-02/2025), that aims at conducting studies for identified priority research areas in the field of urban mobility. The collaborators for the project are Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), National Law School of India University (NLSIU), and Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE).
Project Description
The Shakti scheme of the Karnataka government is a new addition to a long list of cities implementing fare-free public transport (FFPT). The philosophy of distributive justice serves as the underlying philosophy, which refers to providing fair access to civic resources, including public transport. Despite the popularity, the impacts of the scheme – benefits, biases and barriers – are often unaccounted for, invisible, and disconnected.
This project will evaluate the Shakti scheme both from a demand (user) perspective and a supply (transport personnel) perspective. In the first phase of studying user perspective, apart from the obvious affordability component of the Shakti scheme, this project will employ the 4As framework (accessibility, availability, acceptability and affordability) to understand their experiences comprehensively. In the second phase, the study will focus on the supply (transport personnel) perspective through focus group discussions at bus depots and related offices. Through these two phases, the study will capture the scheme’s invisible, unaccounted and disparate impact on bus users and society at large.
This research project has chosen four field sites to capture the diversity in user experience, geography and service provision. The four field sites are Mysuru (Tier II), Hubli (Tier II), Kalaburagi (Tier II) and Karwar (Tier III). The study categorises bus users into three intersectional categories, based on age and purpose of travel. 1) younger adults (18 to 25 years) accessing higher education; 2) middle-aged adults (18 to 60 years) in the workforce 3) Older adults (60& above) accessing healthcare. This project aims to employ a state-of-the-art combination of quantitative, qualitative, and geo-spatial methods. The quantitative methods include structured, in-person, researcher-administered surveys for the three cohorts. Qualitative methods using in-depth interviews for a purposive sample will be administered to understand the experiences of access and barriers in detail and their perceptions about the scheme. Focus group discussion will be conducted to understand the range of perceptions, opinions and experiences of transport personnel. The outputs of the project include capacity building, workshops for research personnel, analysis, popular media pieces and reports.
Duration
The project started in September 2025 and is for a period of one year.
Team
The project team constitutes expertise spanning urban sociology, gender studies, transport geography, and public health.
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Prajwal Nagesh (from MIDS), an expert in urban sociology and transport geography with over six years of experience in researching urban mobility through accessing public transportation in South Asia, will lead the project.
Co-Investigators:
- Dr. Vijayamba R (from NLSIU), a development economist, will assess the economic ripple effects of the Shakti Scheme, including its influence on the labour market participation. Her expertise on gender, labour and large-scale data will contribute to the quantitative method of the study.
- Dr. Selim Jahangir (from MAHE), a human geography expert in gender and urban studies, will lead the qualitative research component.
- Dr. Divya Sussana Patil (from MAHE), a public health expert in ageing, healthcare access, and evidence synthesis, will lead the impact of the Shakti scheme on healthcare access components.