Social Ventures Drive Women To Run Taxis, School Buses


BENGALURU: Shifting gears such initiatives become crucial in cities where crimes are increasing against women and children To make the city's roads safer for women and children, a few social ventures are training women from different backgrounds to take the wheels of taxis and school buses.

The women's wing at industry body Ficci is launching an initiative to bring more women into nonteaching jobs in schools, including as bus drivers, in Bengaluru and other large cities. Maruti Suzuki has committed to train 1,500 women as drivers across 15 chapters of Ficci Ladies Organization, or FLO, for free. The candidates need to have fin ished high school and be between ages 18 and 35.

"Talks are going on with private and public schools in the city to hire more women for new staff," said Rati Dhandhania Mundrey , chairperson of FLO Beng alur u chapter."Depending on the number of schools that will come on board, the number of women who will be trained can be determined."

The women will be ready for employment in six months.

In addition to being a push for women empowerment, such initiatives are becoming crucial in cities where crimes are increasing against women and children, even in schools. Bengaluru is considered relatively safer than cities like Delhi, but instances of abuse are becoming more prevalent here too. In another initiative, women from across Karnataka are being trained to drive taxis by R2R Ventures, a forprofit social enterprise. The taxi ven ture, known as Womencabs and launched in April, works with a few companies through the week to transport women employees. On weekends, it caters to the public, but only women.

R2R Ventures provides free accommodation and food for its women drivers. Volunteers from Manipal Group, IBM and Accenture are training the women drivers in time management, client conversations and business etiquettes and ex-defence personnel are providing them lessons in self-defence.

Womencabs is presently training about 65 women between the ages 21 and 45. They come from differ ent backgrounds - students, security guards, tele-callers and even part-timers from the IT industry, such as Sonali Mukerji, a network engineer at Cisco, who is driving these cabs on weekends, and housewives like Nafeez S, mother of two, who holds an international driving licence.

"There's a market for such niche services and if we provide reliable and efficient service, we'll be able to do well," said retired Major Shailendra Singh, founder of Womencabs and an alumni of IIM Bangalore. "Currently, 5-10 taxis are providing the service in the city, with 15 women drivers working on shifts."

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Source: PTI