International Women's Day 2018: Pink Auto initiative shows way, makes travelling safer

BONGAIGAON: In the commercial hub of Bongaigaon, a group of 13 woman is ushering in a change. These women have launched auto services across the town, providing safe transport options for women.
Pink Auto, the first such initiative in the northeast, is the brainchild of social worker Kusumbar Choudhury, who is also the Bongaigaon city project manager of the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM). It was formally launched in January this year. Choudhury said that the project can be termed as a success. "Now, besides providing safety and security to the women passengers in the town, these women have also set an example of a dignified living," he added. Choudhury came up with the concept after a woman passenger faced harassment while travelling alone in the town.

For most of these women, widowed or separated from their husbands, this is also a means to assert their financial independence. "It's great to be doing this work. It has given us a better platform to earn a dignified life. Our earnings have increased. I'm happier to bear the expenses of my household and save something for my daughter," Saraswati Sahoo, a widow and one of the women auto drivers, told TOI.

Sahoo lives with her daughter and her husband's family in Bongaigaon town. She would earn very little and barely make ends meet. "Now, I earn around Rs 600 or more in a day," she says.

Though these women have been doing their new job with pride, they have to overcome numerous challenges, including disparaging words from their male counterparts. However, they have not allowed that to get in the way. "Very often, our male counterparts would discourage us. But we have accepted the challenge. I tell them we are doing our work," says Sahoo, laughing off the hostility she faces on a daily basis.