Help Women in India Become Professional Drivers

As per the International Labour Organisation’s 2018 report titled Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture (third edition), around 81% of employed people in India are working in the informal sector. Organisations in India like Azad Foundation have recognised this need and are working actively towards making non-traditional jobs in the informal sector welcoming for women. At a time when India is battling its worst unemployment woes at a 6.1% - highest in 45 years according to reports. India is constantly facing decline in women workforce participation which has come down from 36% to 24% in couple of decades. Azad Foundation is fighting these odds to offer livelihoods with dignity  for resource poor women in these challenging circumstances It is heartening to see women today taking up roles and jobs that society considers fit only for men. They have broken all stereotypes and created their own pathway in fields dominated by men despite gender diversity numbers may not be statistically balanced yet

On the occasion of International Women’s day, Azad Foundation and Its strategic partner, Sakha has celebrated the achievements of women drivers, in Kolkata 40 women drivers felicitated by the Minister of Women and Child Development, Provincial Government of West Bengal. Most of the felicitated women drivers came from extremely challenging circumstances, survivors of domestic violence, extreme poverty, non-supportive families, they have not only surmount such situations but are now “empowered” women professional chauffeurs who can sustain themselves.       

Since its inception in 2015, Azad Foundation’s, Women On Wheels Kolkata, has enrolled 270 women, out of them 165 women have become employable. These empowered women drivers are not only changing their own life, but also making inroads into male dominated transport sector and breaking age-old patriarchal doctrines in Kolkata. In year 2019-20 Azad Foundation plans to enrol 130 more women to the programme and ensure that many of them become empowered chauffeurs and entrepreneurs.

 Launch of Pink Cabs in Kolkata:

Though the political environment in the city of Kolkata, India has been challenging, with constant negotiations and advocacy this year the state government announced and issued special permits for the Pink Cabs for women drivers to be able to purchase a vehicle/ taxi with a subsidy of INR 100000 (USD 1450) from the government under the Welfare scheme “Gatidhara” for women. The Chief Minister of the State of West Bengal, Ms Mamta Banerjee, flagged off the ‘Pink Cabs’ in Feb 2019. Of the 10 women at the launch ceremony, 8 women drivers from Azad Foundation and Sakha were encouraged to apply for the same and 7 have already received the vehicles in their names.

With this Azad Foundation and Sakha have created a new model of business where women these drivers will become entrepreneurs by owning the vehicles. We are determined that these amazing women succeed and many more women can take the entrepreneurial route facilitated by support of Azad Foundation and Sakha’s Women on Wheels.

 Manashi’s journey

The first day Manashi drove a car was one of the most significant days of her life. She felt like a huge step towards improving her life, and she felt confident and empowered.

A widow with 2 young children, she joined Azad because she wanted to earn a livelihood and more importantly, earn it with respect.

Her training at Azad, has helped her increased her self-confidence and her sense of fear has been crushed. She sees Azad as an institution that helps create a sense of self-reliance for women and where women learn to establish themselves independently and succeed.

Today she is proud to stand on her feet driving the Pink Cab and wants to bring up her sons in a healthy environment with financial independence. She would like to teach her family and other people about the benefits of self-reliance and confidence.

According to UN Human Development Index, India ranks 127 out of 160 countries in the 2017 Gender Inequality Index report. The Gender Inequality Index reflects gender-based inequalities in three dimensions – reproductive health, empowerment, and economic activity. According to a report tabled by Indian Finance Minister, “the gender gap in labour force participation rate is more than 50 percentage points.” The care work that women do at households is unaccounted and non-paid. The work predominantly considered ‘fit’ for women ensures less or no growth- is often underpaid, less recognized, and non-remunerative. Azad Foundation took a pioneering step 10 years ago in 2008 to challenge the patriarchal norms that prevents resource poor women to take up ‘livelihoods with dignity’. Azad Foundation’s flagship program, Women on Wheels, had a humble beginning, with only a handful of women in 2008 but over ten years we have trained women chauffeurs across 5 cities in India, Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, and Bangalore.

Completion of 10 years of an arduous journey is in itself something worth celebrating, for an initiative that is so intrinsically ‘disruptive” and challenges the unequal status quo of women, in homes, communities and markets. Over the years, Azad and Sakha have trained and helped provide employment to more than 750 women drivers who are earning remunerative incomes for themselves and have become principle breadwinners in their families. These women drivers have provided more than a million safe rides to women users. To celebrate this success, Azad Foundation organized an Alumni meet in Delhi – ‘Jashn-e-Karvan’ (Celebration of our Journey), which was attended by around 400 women chauffeurs from Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, and Bangalore.

The meet created a platform for the women drivers to come together to share their journey of transformation and courage. It provided visibility to the community of women drivers and enthused them with more strength and courage to fight their everyday battles. The event started with a beautiful dance from our trainees welcoming their role models. The occasion was graced by some feminists like Kamla Bhasin, policy makers and eminent influencers from the development sector like Gagan Sethi and Rano Bhogal. Addressing the drivers, Kamla Bhasin Said, “…you are all history makers, earning fame and glory… You just don’t drive cars, you drive change.”

We also had the British High Commissioner, Sir Dominic Asquith congratulating the cadre of women drivers. He shared his experience of using services offered by Sakha women chauffeurs and the fact that ‘Duchess of Cornwell, couldn’t stop talking about Sakha drivers after meeting them.’

Different sessions were organized to impart knowledge like sessions on self-defense and healthy relationships along with some fun activities like Zumba class, a talent show, and a studio corner for some amazing and fun moments. The session on healthy relationships had discussions around homosexuality, consent, healthy sexual relationships and etc. The session on self-defense was a rather fun one where women drivers got to renew their learnings of years. Zumba was a great refresher for all. The video studio corner had Sakha drivers sharing about their journey towards becoming a driver and the odds and challenges they had to ride above to be who they are today – empowered women professional chauffeurs!

Here are few other major highlights from the event:

• A session on testimonials of women commercial drivers had women sharing their journey of struggle and change. This is what Kiran from Jaipur and Esnotara from Kolkata shared:

Kiran, a commercial driver from Jaipur, shared that earlier she had no support from her family to take up driving as a profession. However, after training and becoming a driver, she has resumed her studies, which she had to discontinue due to her early marriage having 3 children. She studies with her two daughters in the same college in Jaipur. She has bought a vehicle for herself and for her husband. She happily shared that her living standards have approved.

Esnotara a driver from Kolkata shared that she was married at a very young age. She was tortured by her husband and her in-laws. Her husband had even tried to murder her by choking her and trying to drown her. However, she decided to leave her husband, moved out with her children and also filed a case against him after she started working with Sakha. She works as a valet driver in Kolkata and wants her children to have the best education.

• A ‘Shapth’ (Pledge) was read out by Khushi, one of our women chauffeurs who is now training other trainees in Azad, pledging to fulfil their duties as drivers and bring in more women into the Non-Traditional Livelihood network. The entire auditorium was filled with strong voices echoing waves of change.
• Towards the end, a charter of demands was read out which will be used as an advocacy document to further the rights of women to take up non-traditional livelihoods and have an enabling ecosystem. The demands focused on asking the government to take up responsibility to pass on information regarding various skills development or enhancement programs to enable women to earn remunerative livelihoods, more career counselling centers for women in basties, and for government to invest in large scale, public campaigns that urge men to take their responsibility in the unpaid care work.

The event was a huge success. In the feedback, drivers expressed their gratitude for organizing such a platform and wished to attend to many more similar platforms. Some of the drivers visited Delhi for the first time and to see their fellow women drivers was quite encouraging and uplifted their spirits.

British High Commissioner, Sir Dominic Asquith, concluded on a congratulatory and inspirational note stating “the world is at your feet and the new dawn is at the horizon.”

We are ever grateful to our donors like yourself whose perpetual support has helped us empower these women.