Patna: The Republic Day celebrations to begin at Gandhi Maidan in Patna later this month will be about more than marching contingents and decorated floats. Leading the transport department’s tableau will be a pink bus driven by six young women from Bihar’s Mahadalit community. This group has long been pushed to the margins of society.
The women, all from poor families in the Punpun area on the outskirts of Patna, will take the wheel in a moment, being hailed by officials as a powerful symbol of social change. Once pressured into early marriage and restricted by rigid caste and gender norms, they are now licensed heavy motor vehicle drivers steering one of the most prominent displays of the state’s Republic Day parade.
Both the driver and conductor on the pink bus will be women, officials confirmed, reinforcing the state government’s “Girls on Wheels” initiative, which aims to promote women’s mobility, employment and independence.
Their journey has not been an easy one. Several of the women had earlier resisted child marriage, defying family and social expectations. Initially, 16 girls were trained to drive light motor vehicles under a programme run by the Women and Child Development Corporation. Later, six of them were selected under the Mahadalit Development Mission for advanced training in Aurangabad, where they learned to operate heavy vehicles and were issued formal licences.
State officials say the initiative is intended not just to create employment but to challenge entrenched beliefs that confine girls from poor and Dalit households to domestic roles. “They are not just driving a bus,” one official said. “They are driving change.”
Alongside the transport department’s tableau, Bihar’s agriculture department will also present a float highlighting the importance of pulses and oilseed crops, as part of a broader push to increase oilseed production across more than 237,000 hectares of farmland in the state.
Preparations for the Republic Day celebrations are in their final stages. Vendors from seasonal fairs have been asked to vacate Gandhi Maidan by 10 January, with parade rehearsals scheduled to begin the following day. Special cleaning drives and ground levelling work are underway across the venue.
As the pink bus rolls across the historic ground on Republic Day, the six women at its helm are expected to offer a striking image of a changing Bihar — one in which daughters are no longer seen as burdens, but as leaders shaping the road ahead.
