Gendered mobility vulnerability, vehicle access, and unequal starting points for sustainable transport transition in India

Abstract

Background: Sustainable mobility transitions may deepen inequality if they overlook gendered affordability constraints and uneven access to transport assets. Existing transport studies in India provide important evidence on individual travel behaviour, mode choice, and safety, but household expenditure data are also needed because they reveal how mobility costs enter the monthly budget. This study examines how household gender composition, rather than individual trip behaviour, is associated with transport expenditure burden, fuel burden, essential-spending composition, vehicle access, and unequal starting points for India's sustainable transport transition. Methods: Using Indian household-month expenditure data from the Consumer Pyramids Household Survey (CPHS), linked to Consumer Price Index (CPI) and India Meteorological Department (IMD) climate variables, the study combines weighted descriptive statistics with ordinary least squares fixed-effects models for transport and fuel expenditure shares, transport-poverty indicators, essential-spending models, climate-and-price interaction models, and vehicle-transition outcomes. Results: Female-majority households do not have a statistically higher adjusted share of total transport-services expenditure than male-majority households in the preferred rich-control specification. Instead, gendered mobility vulnerability appears through more specific household-composition and access channels. Female-headed households are associated with a 0.126 percentage-point higher transport-services share, while the female adult-share coefficient is nominally positive but does not survive false-discovery-rate adjustment. Female-majority households show a 0.355 percentage-point lower fuel share, and female-headed households show a 0.584 percentage-point lower fuel share, which is interpreted as possible weaker access to private motorized mobility rather than lower vulnerability. Fuel burden is associated with lower food, education, and health expenditure shares by 0.388, 0.075, and 0.049 percentage points, respectively. Female-majority households also show weaker access to vehicle assets and acquisition channels relevant to future mobility transitions, especially an 8.4 percentage-point lower probability of two-wheeler ownership and a 1.4 percentage-point lower probability of vehicle borrowing. Evidence on current electric-vehicle ownership or purchase intention is sparse and does not support a broad conclusion about gender differences. Conclusions: The findings suggest that sustainable transport policy in India must address affordability, safe access, vehicle ownership gaps, and unequal transition-related starting points to ensure that gendered mobility vulnerability is not reinforced as the transition unfolds.