Free Bus Passes Are Giving Indian Women More Financial Freedom

Women-only taxi companies like An Nisa in Nairobi empower women to become rideshare drivers. These opportunities combat gender bias and create a safer space for women.

Groups of women in Nigeria are forming rotating savings programs on WhatsApp because formal banking is often inaccessible. Essentially operating like an informal credit union, each member of the group gives an equal amount to a chosen admin, and a payout is given to a different member every month based on need.

In Jackson, Mississippi, the nonprofit-run Magnolia Mother’s Trust is a guaranteed income program providing a no-strings-attached monthly stipend of $1,000 to Black mothers living in affordable housing to help them combat poverty.

Guaranteed income programs aim to reduce poverty by providing cash to those in need with no strings attached. One of these programs in New York City, The Bridge Project, focuses on helping women of color who are mothers.

Colleges in California are providing reduced or free public transit to full-time students in an effort to remove cost barriers for low-income students.

Recent efforts to bring a gender perspective, especially a feminist one, to urban planning are making cities safer and more inclusive. One Indian app called SafetiPin crowdsources ratings of public spaces based on various safety criteria like lighting, visibility, and transportation. Elsewhere, city planners and researchers are defining what a feminist city would look like. In Sweden, buses are incorporating "night stops" between regular stops to decrease the amount of walking at night needed.

A pilot program in Philadelphia is providing low-income residents with unlimited free rides on public transportation, which they may not otherwise be able to afford. Participants did not need to apply and were selected by lottery or through community-based organizations.

The transit authority in Cleveland, Ohio, is offering a microtransit shuttle service for employees who work in locations with limited or no public transit. Rides are free and set up on an as-needed basis via an app.

The largest central trade union in India, the Self Employed Women’s Association, runs affordable, flexible childcare centers across the country to combat the lack of accessible childcare options creating gender inequality in the job market. Now, women who are members of the union can go to work knowing their children are well cared for and older children can stay in school instead of caring for their siblings.

The Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund’s In Her Hands initiative provides monthly stipends to Black women with no strings attached, to help them combat poverty. Payments average $850 dollars per month and recipients have full control over how it is spen.