One of the only four She Taxi drivers in Kozhikode, Shobhana C. knocked on many a door seeking justice, before she approached the Kerala Women’s Commission on Monday.
It has been one-and-a-half years since the taxi driver from Nadakkavu took out her vehicle from its shed. She says the officials at the centralised call centre in Thiruvananthapuram have been denying her trips. “They have not intimated me about any mistake I committed. I haven’t received any official communication that I have been removed from service. Then why am I an outcast,” she asks.
It was in 2014 that the She Taxi service was launched in Kozhikode under the aegis of the Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation (KSWDC) and the Gender Park. There were very few trips right from the beginning, and after eight months there were fewer, says Ms. Shobhana, adding that her condition is similar to the other three drivers.
She says trouble began a year-and-a-half ago when the call centre officials demanded that the drivers lower the minimum charge to ₹100. “I was not ready to agree to this as the government has fixed the minimum charge for taxis at ₹250. But, we were working with ₹200 as minimum charge. Lowering it further would not be feasible. Besides, it would harm other taxi drivers,” she says, adding that she was not assigned any trips after she refused to lower charges.
“I have submitted complaints to the call centre as well as the Gender park many times, but did not get any reply. Later, I approached the District Collector who routed my complaint to the Superintendent of Social Justice Department. I even took it to the Chief Minister’s mass contact programme. But I did not get justice anywhere. The KSWDC officials and Gender Park officials insulted me. It was the new District Collector who suggested that I approach the Women’s Commission and here I am. If I don’t get justice here, I have no other options,” she says.
With no income, Ms. Shobhana is struggling to pay off the debt incurred on the purchase of the state-of-the-art taxi. “We can’t even sell it because technically it is the property of the Gender Park though we paid for it,” she says. All that this taxi driver wants is to resume her trips so that she is able to pay off the debt.
The Women’s Commission has scheduled the case to be heard in the next sitting as no representatives of the Gender Park turned up on Monday.