By Azad Foundation | Project Team
Thanks to your generous support, 53 female drivers in Delhi, Gurgaon and Jaipur fully completed their Women on Wheels training and got employed with our sister company, Sakha Cabs for Women, in the last 12 month.
One of our drivers, V.Saritha, has become the first woman bus driver with Delhi Transport Corporation, the city’s state transport bus service. Then there are Sufina, Veena and Malti, who are working in Nissan and Hyundai car showrooms. In Jaipur, Chand has become a driving instructor herself, teaching other women and also men how to drive. Others are working for private clients, including civil servants, university professors and a media professional. Read on to learn about the path to empowerment of these brave women and the story of Chand.
Path to empowerment
The Azad learning journey culminating at Sakha is full of milestones, which are achievements in themselves. The battle begins when she steps out of her home, fighting family pressure and gender bias - whether she is married or not. She steps into Azad with the support of our mobilisers to go through each training module one by one. Her training in driving begins with obtaining a learner’s licence and thereafter she goes from strength to strength by undertaking the gender training, self-defense and communication skills classes. A permanent driving license and finally a job as a professional driver follow. For some, the next aim is to obtain a commercial license to drive a taxi.
Along the way she gets over her fears, inhibitions and complexes. Her path is ridden with hurdles and obstacles. She falls and rises countless times to achieve her goal. It is as much a battle for her as for the Azad mobilisers, who walk every step of the way with her. Some women persevere until the end, while some need to focus on other pressing challenges in their lives and walk away, and sometimes return to Azad when the time is right.
The woman who finally sits behind the wheel as a professional driver is like a power packed package. She knows her mind, is aware of her rights, can exercise her discretion, is fearless and bold, articulate and forthright and she knows how to flex her muscles. She has confidence to tackle challenging situations, whether it is an abusive husband, a difficult family member, prying neighbours, demanding parents or an unfaithful boyfriend. She is like any professional urban woman trying to strike a balance between her home and the workplace. Like Chand…
Story of Chand
Chand is from a conservative Muslim family. She was married off to a truck driver at a young age and has four children. Content in leading a family life, she had never stepped out of her home. But when Chand’s husband died in a road accident, she was left to fend for herself and the children. She had to move out of her house and started living in a shack. She earned living by teaching Urdu to children, and later started working as a caretaker in a private children hostel to be able to support her family.
One day, she decided to enroll for the Women on Wheels programme after she met our mobilization team. But the going was tough. “I was mortally scared of driving and was afraid that I would hit someone. Others who had joined with me had gone much ahead. I lacked confidence. Dejected, I went back to my job as a night guard. But the Azad team didn’t give up so easily. They convinced me that I could do it and took me back in their fold,” says Chand.
She used to come to the centre covered in a burqa from head to toe, change in the washroom and then go on with her training. Azad have provided her a loan to support her family in lieu of the income she was loosing due to training. Chand has completed her training and obtained a licence, and today is working as a trainer in the very same Maruti training school in which she trained. Today, Chand radiates confidence. She is a far cry from the shy woman that she once was. In her own words: “I can’t believe that I have an identity of my own. From being known as someone’s wife, I am Chand, the driver.”
Thank you for helping Chand and many other women lift themselves out of poverty and transform themselves to confident self-sustaining individuals. You are helping to create irreversilbe change in India.
By Azad Foundation | Project Team
By Azad Foundation | Project Team
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