It goes without saying that governmental schemes directed at empowering students and improving their chances at excelling in academic affairs is essential for any society to progress. Financial support, funding opportunities, coaching and other steps taken by administrations of schools and colleges enable pupils to advance in their academic fields. Under the light of the very same sentiment, the Punjab Government recently decided to hand out scooties to female students, starting in January, 2014. In the first phase of the implementation of the new scheme, 80 students of Fatima Jinnah Women University in Rawalpindi will receive their very own electric scooties for transport to and from college.
Schemes of this nature encourage students to take bold steps in order to pursue their studies. At the same time, some schemes prove to change little and become tepid measures in the long run. In this case, the example of laptops given by the very same government shows us that while they are important devices for students in this age, en masse provisions of laptops do not necessarily revolutionize studies or the IT industry. Solar lamps, on the other hand, assist in a list of situations – particularly in the case of Punjab where load-shedding of electricity creates great obstacles for pupils wishing to study.
The provision of scooties for female students, however, is more than just a scheme; it is a dynamic move toward empowering young women in the public sphere where they are often unseen and unheard of. By giving them an independent mode of transport, the scheme not only helps female students in navigating through male-dominated spaces, but also challenges ultra-conservative and regressive views of women and their mobility. It would be a pleasant change in the status quo to see women accelerate – literally – on their own terms.