Gender Equality India Project #16908

Help Women in India Become Professional Drivers

by Azad Foundation

Help Women in India Become Professional Drivers

Project Report | Jun 22, 2021
Hope in times of crisis!

By Amrita Gupta | Director-Research Advocacy and Communications

Hope in times of crisis!

Despite the unprecedented challenges brought on by COVID-19, 2020 ended on a note of hope. Towards the end of the year, cases were down; news of the vaccine was uplifting; educational institutes, work-spaces and business were slowly limping back to normalcy. Azad and Sakha were able to keep our women trainees and drivers engaged and supported, and our work picked up slowly and steadily. In 2021, Azad and Sakha services started in full swing in all our locations Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata, Indore (Sakha) and Chennai. We celebrated International Women’s Day on 8^th March, where Sakha shared the joy of being back in business by offering discounts on all rides booked that day along with a referral discount to promote Sakha services.

However, our happiness was short-lived as the second wave of COVID-19 arrived, taking us all by surprise. The second wave has been unprecedented not only because of the numbers of lives lost, but also because of the complete failure of government machinery in terms of health services and relief support.

With the surge in positive cases and deaths, each state introduced their own lockdown restrictions, keeping open only essential and emergency services. As transport was an essential service, we kept all our services open despite minimal business. We extended our services to include patients suffering from mild and moderate COVID-19 symptoms who were struggling to get local/private taxis, and to a range of clientele, including the elderly, pregnant women and people going for their vaccinations. All cabs met safety guidelines, including handy sanitizers, isolators, a properly kitted driver (mask, gloves, face shields, PPE Kits).

Stories of resilience from women driving the wheels of change in Kolkata

During this time of uncertainty and immense loss, our Sakha chauffeurs continued to do their duty diligently knowing fully the danger involved. We take a bow to all these brave women.

Since 1^st March 2021, till date, we have provided close to 6500 safe rides across all our four locations.

On 19 May 2021, a call for a cab booking came in at 3.15 pm in Kolkata. It was a COVID patient who needed to visit her ailing COVID parents and get them hospitalized. It was a call of desperation. Within 15 minutes of the call, our driver Shankari Haldar reached the client’s place, ready in her PPE Kit, with the cab fully sanitized, all safety measures in place, and drove the client to her destination. At 9 pm, the same voice called back to inform that her grandfather had passed away in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Shankari drove the client’s mother multiple times and helped her see everything through for her father, including his last rites. The client thanked Sakha and Shankari profusely for making it possible for her mother to see her father (the client’s grandfather) the last time.

On 16 March 2021, a call for an airport pickup came in at 11.30 pm in Kolkata. The booking was for a senior citizen. Unfortunately, on the day of the pickup, the flight got delayed to 12.45 am. Sakha driver Mitu Dey patiently waited, picked up the client and dropped her off safely at her house. Mitu reached home only at 1.45 am in the morning.

We remain committed but as the world stands still again we seek your support!

With business hitting rock bottom, we started the #NoTurningBack campaign once again to support our drivers. Through the campaign, we set up a helpline for our women drivers, trainees and their support systems. We initiated an assessment to understand their current system, organized weekly sessions with a qualified doctor to answer their questions on COVID-19, and conducted workshops with qualified counsellors to ensure their mental well-being. All drivers on duty have been provided with safety kits (PPE kits, N95 masks, regular masks, gloves, face shield and hand sanitizers) to ensure their safety as well as the safety of the clients. Till date, we have ensured uninterrupted salaries to all our Sakha commercial drivers across all locations. Every bit of donation to the #NoTurningBack campaign counts and it will ensure that these brave hearted women are able to tide through these difficult times. Your support will make a difference. Donate now to Azad Foundation: http://m-lp.co/azadfoun

Attachments:

Hope_in_times_of_crisis.pdf (PDF)

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Feb 23, 2021
From Transport to Retail

By Amrita Gupta | Director Research Advocacy and Communications

From Transport to Retail – a shift to stay relevant in the changing world of work!

“Be the change you wish to see” – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

This quote finds deep resonance with the work we do – empowering Ambassadors of Change to be the change they wish to see. Having said this, this journey would not have been possible without YOU.

Last October, we had brought you an update on how Azad, with the support of generous donors like you, was able to provide multifaceted support like: food relief, access to information and support for Government social security schemes, support for survivors of gender-based violence, and sanitation and hygiene facilities to women trainees, chauffeurs, their families, and communities with which Azad works. We also shared how we had expanded to include 2-wheeler trainings so that women could avail of emerging opportunities on the e-commerce platform. This report will delve deeper on how this transition was enabled.

COVID-19 pandemic has deeply affected the transportation and tourism sectors, both of which Azad directly works with. Tourism contributes to 10% of the GDP and 12.5% of job generation in the Indian economy. As many of us would agree, with each challenge comes an opportunity; in this case - the emerging E-commerce expansion and enhanced demand for online orders.

Azad Kolkata was a frontrunner in two-wheeler training, which began with women chauffeurs who had been previously working but had lost their jobs during the lockdown, or those women who were actively seeking a job. In keeping with the Azad ethos of engagement with trainees and their families, detailed discussions were held with the women and their families to ensure that they understood the job profiles, requirements, work-timings and the reason for this sudden shift from four-wheelers to two-wheelers.

The Training Process – learning hands on!

The training commences with twelve such chauffeurs and two women trainers. In order to maintain social distancing, enable trainees to attend trainings closer to their home in the absence of regular public transport post lockdown, trainers visited the house of each trainee to impart technical training whilst ensuring that COVID-19 hygiene and safety compliance was strictly adhered to. In keeping with the transformative, rights-based Skill ++ training that Azad follows, classes included empowerment modules, map- and GPS reading; gender & legal rights; self-development modules like English language and communication skills; these trainings were conducted virtually through small, online group meetings. As the job demanded knowledge and familiarity of English language, special focus was placed on the same thanks to the self-learning mobile application sourced in partnership with Quest Alliance, along with practice sessions using names of delivery items of the targeted e-commerce brands, sample invoices to identify names, and several rounds of mock –interviews with each trainee.

Market Negotiations-an important element in the ‘Big Picture’

In parallel to preparing trainees for the job market, an equal effort was applied to ensure dignified work conditions, along with social security and transportation facilities. While some e-commerce retailers provided electric vehicles, for others, Azad, along with its livelihood partner Sakha, had to ensure that adequate investments were raised to purchase electric two wheelers.

The Impact-

Through this ongoing rigorous process that panned out between August 2020 – Jan 2021, with Kolkata, Delhi has also joined in the efforts to train women on two wheelers and a total of 41 women (28 in Kolkata, 13 Delhi)women have been placed with the retail majors, till now. Currently, 30 more women are still undergoing training as part of this 3-month long training program which is being institutionalized within Women With Wheels. Do view the accompanying video that captures this transition, and voices of our new delivery executives.

Two-Wheeler Training in Kolkata

Big Basket delivery executives with their new E-Scooties

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Oct 27, 2020
A little belief can help provide an #OceanOfRelief

By Meetu Kapoor | Programme Officer- Communications

A little belief can help provide an ocean of relief

Azad Foundation with the support of generous donors like you could support women chauffeurs and families of women trainees who lost their livelihoods during the COVID19 pandemic. We had shared this in our previous report. As we emerge from lockdown, our support in the form of food relief, access to information and support on government social security schemes, assisting survivors of gender based violence and interventions on sanitation and hygiene continue along with adaptations to access new livelihood opportunities. This report talks of our relief work and exploring new livelihood opportunities.

Our virtual community need assessment indicated that Not only violence but other forms of discrimination was also prevalent in the form of increasing care work and restrictions on mobility. This guided our support, assisting survivors through counselling and legal support

The lack of access to masks revealed by the community need assessment also spurred the Azad teams to work on production of masks, which were distributed, to all community members along with relief supplies across Delhi, Jaipur and Kolkata.

New Opportunities in E-Commerce- In addition to these initiatives to build community resilience, Azad has also been exploring ways to enable more women trainees to get employment. Since the transport sector is still recovering from the shocks of lockdown, the safety concerns related to travel, and the e-commerce sector was the new emerging need of the hour, Azad could successfully transition through some collaborations with e-commerce delivery chains to enable trainees to explore jobs as delivery agents. So far, 12 women in Delhi, 8 in Jaipur 12 in Indore and 14 women in Kolkata have begun working as delivery agents as shown in the pictures below. We continue to explore more such opportunities while we will keep the relief work ongoing with the support of our donors

We thank all our supporters, partners, and donors because of whom we have been able to support our communities and continue our attempts to build back better with resilience.

Thank you all for your support!!

Azad Foundation Team

Links:

Attachments:

Azad_Foundation_GG_Report_27th_Oct_.pdf (PDF)

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