Travel With Dignity

It is a normal scene across Kerala where you could see students going to schools and colleges standing in long Que., mostly ignored and harassed by private buses. They are not allowed inside the bus before 'adult' tickets are engaged, they are often mistreated and shouted. Many of them don't even reach school on time as they 'missed their bus' and for those who reached the school, the experiences of often nasty interaction with the bus staff leaves a bad taste and humiliation. 

It's in this context Savarigirigiri was launched. To bring dignity to such passengers while studying the reasons behind such behaviour from the bus operators. As per rules, school and college goers get concession in buses. As most of the bus services are operated by Private players they see the students only as 'numbers' that incur losses to them. From their perspective, any student getting on to the bus is a missed opportunity to have accommodated an adult on full fare. Now students can travel like a VIP in the bus as the 'opportunity cost' is taken care through SavariGiri. They will soon be given smart cards that allow them to travel hassle free across the district. 

How does it work?

In the current system, the first bus that comes in the route is tempted to 'push over' the students to the following buses as part of their strategy to reduce their loss. At some point of time someone has to take these students and that particular bus absorbs maximum loss, which is not an ethical way of avoiding loss. So we invited the Bus Operators Associations and Trade Unions to discuss the possibilities of how the system can absorb the potential losses compared to select few of the operators having to incur the losses. 

It was agreed that with the help of smart card, the bus owners association will have an understanding about the number of students who have travelled with them and the potential loss is absorbed by the association which is further divided amongst individual buses operators. Bus Operators also now have the option to keep donation boxes through which they can raise funds from the public hence making up for the 'absorbed losses' as well. A win win situation we believe.