After Delhi and Jaipur, women in Kolkata will hit the streets as chauffeurs
Women in Delhi and Jaipur have done it. Now women in Kolkata are going to breach a male bastion and hit the streets as chauffeurs. Lending them a hand are two NGOs and their project - Women on Wheels. Their objective is to 'empower disadvantaged women by teaching them to drive as professionals'.
The number of women drivers in Kolkata is less but that should change after the project is launched on Saturday. There is a growing demand for women chauffeurs from hotels, hospitals and women passengers.
Smriti Singh, 30, has trained to drive for six months with Azad Foundation. She's got her licence and is raring to go. A survivor of domestic violence, she had a daughter to take care of and no livelihood when she walked out on her abusive husband. The steering wheel has spelled empowerment.
"I am very happy and proud to be doing this. I was at a loss before, I was nobody before. Today I can take on the world and say I am independent, I am a lady driver," says Smriti Singh.
She is one of nine women in Kolkata who are trained as chauffeurs by the Azad Foundation that has already put 500 women behind wheels in Jaipur and Delhi. Fourteen more women are undergoing training.
Minati Das, who studied up to class 10 but dropped out because of financial problems in the family, is still a learner but excited to be doing what she once thought only men did. "Why only men? Even women can be drivers. I am getting quite good at it and will make a success of it," she says.
Just so they are safe on the job, they are taught self-defense by Azad's partner NGO, Thotshop, which also teaches them the skills and etiquette on-the-job. The women are also trained to fix punctures, read maps and speak basic English.
Revati Banerjee of Thotshop Foundation is upbeat about the project. "I have a daughter who car polls to school and back. I wouldn't worry about sexual abuse if her driver was a woman," she says.
Azad Foundation's programme director in Kolkata, Dolon Ganguly, adds, "The project has done very well in Delhi and Jaipur. We want women in Kolkata to also break gender barriers at work and enter what is viewed as a male bastion."
For now, these women are being privately placed. Next year, a chauffeur on call service and a car hire company - Sakha Cabs - will be launched in Kolkata for them.