Bengaluru: BMTC announces free bus rides for women on International Women’s Day

Close to 29 lakh citizens rely on BMTC’s fleet of 6,600 buses for their daily commute, and on average, women comprise over 10.48 lakh of the daily passengers.

The BMTC had earlier offered free rides for all when it turned 25 in August last year.

Meanwhile, the government of Telangana has declared Wednesday, 8 March, a holiday for all women working in both private and public sectors as part of the International Women’s Day celebrations.

Telangana’s Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department will organise week-long programmes for women across the state.

ಅಂತರರಾಷ್ಟೀಯ ಮಹಿಳಾ ದಿನಾಚರಣೆಯ ಅಂಗವಾಗಿ ದಿ.08-03-2023 ರಂದು ಮಹಿಳೆಯರಿಗೆ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಯ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಸೇವೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಉಚಿತ ಪ್ರಯಾಣ ಕಲ್ಪಸಿದೆ. pic.twitter.com/FjCJCx6STq

— BMTC (@BMTC_BENGALURU) March 7, 2023

DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality

Every year International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8.

International Women’s Day is celebrated in various ways across the world. It is a public holiday in several countries after it was adopted by the United Nations in 1977.

The aim of commemorating Women’s Day is to draw attention to gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.

It began with around 1,500 women hitting the streets of New York demanding shorter working hours, equal pay and the right to vote in 1908.

International Women’s Day — first celebrated in 1913 — has its roots in the universal female suffrage movements, an offshoot of labour uprisings in North America and Europe in the past century.

March 8 became a holiday after women won suffrage in the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1917, and far-left and communist countries consider it a socialist, feminist movement.

The United Nations has declared the theme for International Women’s Day – 2013 as DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality, to acknowledge and appreciate the contribution of women and girls to technology and online learning.