Chandigarh:
We have seen incidents in the past there CCTV footage has revealed how toll collectors on the highway are attacked and face wrath of drivers on the highway.
Last year, a toll collector was shot dead at a toll plaza near Gurgaon when he refused to allow someone through without paying.
Clearly, in a country where tempers on the highway run high a toll attendant's job is a dangerous one. And in such a scenario, if women take up this job, it is bound to make headlines.
But it is perhaps this challenge or simply the opening up of a new avenue that is attracting many young women and there are now 40 women employed at toll booths on Punjab and Haryana highways.
"We are not less than anybody. If girls can be in BSF, why can't we do this job? We are not lacking in anything. If there is any problem we face it," says Gagan Bansal, who quit her job as a school teacher to be a toll collector.
"We can't live in fear. We have to do something, and here it is not very difficult. We have to face the customer and we were trained for it," says Rinki, a female toll collector.
Those pass through say it's a welcome change.
But most important officials say cases of toll attendants being abused or assaulted that ranged from 50 to 60 every month are now down 70 per cent at the four toll plazas where women are employed.
Officials say this is because the women handle an argument better.
"The opportunity has been created for girls it is tough. Yes it is a difficult job but we take proper care of their security," says Sachin Sharma, a toll plaza manager at Shambhu, Punjab.
It is considered one of the most dangerous job, but here women have a point to prove that they can brave it all with a smile on their face.