KSRTC bus door in Mandya didn’t break owing to rush of woman passengers

A video of a broken bus door being changed in the Malavalli town of Mandya district in Karnataka is viral on social media with the claim that the incident happened because of the rush of women passengers who are taking bus rides after the government declared that women can avail free rides in government buses. The recently elected Karnataka government has granted women this privilege under the Shakti scheme launched on June 11.

Kannada News channel News First tweeted the aforementioned video on June 19 with a caption in Kannada that can be translated as: “The door of the KSRTC bus was broken due to the large number of women who had come for the free bus journey. The incident took place at a bus stand in Malavalli town of Mandya district. #newsfirstkannada #newsfirstkannada #KSRTC #bus #mandya #ViralVideos #CongressGuarantee #KarnatakaNews”. (Archive)

ಉಚಿತ ಬಸ್ ಪ್ರಯಾಣಕ್ಕೆ ಅತಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಸಂಖ್ಯೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಮಹಿಳೆಯರು ಬಂದಿದ್ದಕ್ಕೆ ನೂಕು ನುಗ್ಗಲು ಉಂಟಾದ ಪರಿಣಾಮ ಕೆಎಸ್ಆರ್​ಟಿಸಿ ಬಸ್​ನ ಬಾಗಿಲು ಮುರಿದು ಹೋಗಿದೆ. ಈ ಘಟನೆಯು ಮಂಡ್ಯ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆಯ ಮಳವಳ್ಳಿ ಪಟ್ಟಣದ ಬಸ್ ನಿಲ್ದಾಣದಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆದಿದೆ. #newsfirstkannada #newsfirstkannada #KSRTC #bus #mandya #ViralVideos… pic.twitter.com/tUnQ3dyRXn

— NewsFirst Kannada (@NewsFirstKan) June 19, 2023

BJP member Shakunthala also shared a screengrab from the video in question on June 17 with the following caption in Kannada, “The self-respecting women team of the state performed Shakti under Shakti Yojana”. (Archive)

ಶಕ್ತಿ ಯೋಜನೆಯಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಶಕ್ತಿ ಪ್ರದರ್ಶನ ಮಾಡಿದ ರಾಜ್ಯದ ಸ್ವಾಭಿಮಾನಿ ಮಹಿಳಾ ತಂಡ ..😆 pic.twitter.com/eu83681N4f

— ಶಕುಂತಲ🪷Shakunthala (@ShakunthalaHS) June 17, 2023

TV9 Kannada uploaded the video on their YouTube channel and claimed in the ‘description’ section that the door had been broken due to the rush of women passengers. The video description in Kannada can be translated as: “The women broke open the door of the bus in their eagerness to board the bus. Another door of a KSRTC bus broke to nari shakti. The incident took place at the KSRTC bus stand in Malavalli town of Mandya district. Just a few days ago, the door of the KSRTC bus was knocked off due to the women’s push at the Kollegal bus stand.” (Archive)

A few other users, such as @MadhukumarVP1 and news portals like Asianet Suvarna News, Udayan Digital News and Garuda Voice also shared the video with similar claims.

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Fact Check

After breaking down the video into several key-frames and running a reverse image search on some of them, we came across a news report from the Kannada newspaper Prajavani which carried a screengrab from the viral video.

The headline of the reports can be translated as: “Malavalli | Women did not break the bus door: Transport agency staff clarified”. The newspaper spoke to the depot manager Sivakumar, who told them that the bus door was changed since the older one had already reached the stage of removal. The changing of doors was done within the bus stand so that no problems arise for the passengers during the journey, he added.

 

We also reached out to a bus stand official in Mandya district where the incident happened. He confirmed that the breaking of the bus door had got nothing to do with the large number of female passengers boarding the bus. The door was already in a vulnerable state and needed to be changed, he added.

Therefore, the claim that women passengers in Karnataka broke the door of a KSRTC bus at Malavalli, Mandya, is false. The changing of the broken bus door is in no way related to the excess number of female passengers availing of free bus rides.