Sushama Midde is Uber’s the only woman driver in company’s Bengal circle. (Source: Express Photo by Shashi Ghosh)
“Dada, aapni kothay? (Where are you, brother?)” Most calls to drivers of ride-hailing services start off with this query in Kolkata, till now known for its fleet of iconic yellow taxis.
But of late many Uber customers in the city have been startled by a very different response: “Dada na, didi (not brother, but sister)”.
This is the voice of Sushama Midde, Uber’s only woman driver partner in Bengal circle. The 30-year-old woman, a resident of Belur in Bengal’s Howrah district is steering a new chapter for commercial drivers in the city where female commercial drivers are still rare.
In the historic neighbourhood of Belur, tourist buses, rental cars and rickshaws jostle with each other to move around the thousands of devotees from around the globe. Cutting through the traffic, Midde tries to make her way to the main gate of Belur Math for her first booking of the day.
Midde takes her 13-year-old son Sourav Midde on a ride as he is back from his boarding school. (Source: Express Photo by Shashi Ghosh)
“That’s the one-way road, right? The one which is on the GT Road?” asks Midde over the phone to her first passenger of the day. Midde, who drives her own car, has been crisscrossing the twin towns on either side of the Hooghly river for the past four months.
With nearly 15 rides a day, Midde’s career as a cab driver has been smooth so far. Usually passengers are pleasantly surprised to have a woman driver, that too in Kolkata. Often a little embarrassed, she asks them not to get too excited. But many say that while they’ve heard about women drivers, they have finally driven with one.
Midde chooses to ignore the taunts and frowns that she encounters from time to time. However, on one occasion she says she decided to fight back when one man slammed her for taking time to reverse her car in a busy street. “Women look better in the kitchen only,” she remembers him sneering at her.
All this was a distant dream even a year ago. “I always loved to ride — be it a bicycle, scooter or car,” beams the mother of one. “When I started learning driving at a Uttarpara driving school it did not surprise anyone. But when I asked the instructor to help me get a commercial license, it left him stunned,” she recalls. “He was first shocked. Then it had him in fits of laughter,” she says. But it all changed when they understood she was serious about earning a better living to support her family.
Midde at her residence in Belur from where she starts her trips everyday. (Source: Express Photo by Shashi Ghosh)
“I had to fight a lot to even get the driving test to clear by license. I was quite shocked the way offices made you go round and round. One day I was so angry that I asked them if a woman can govern a state, can’t she drive a car?” Midde decided to change tracks after she realised the income from offering salon services to women at their homes was not enough for her.
“I was generally complaining to my uncle how I didn’t like any of the odd jobs I did. He got a little annoyed and quipped: ‘Go! drive a taxi. That’s all is left to do’.” Though meant as a joke, Midde took it as serious advice.
Sushama with her Sonamoni Midde, who is a e-rickshaw driver. (Source: Express Photo by Shashi Ghosh)
Behind Midde is a very supportive husband and a 13-year-old son, who couldn’t be more proud of his mother.
“‘My mother drives a car, she’s a driver,’ my son keeps telling all his friends at boarding school. It was he who first told me, ‘You’re a woman, who is driving, you’ll see everyone will be proud of you’,” says Midde, her eyes glistening in pride.
But she’s also quick to praise her husband, who is differently-abled, and drives an e-rickshaw. “He always had faith in me and still thinks that whatever I do will be for the betterment of this family,” she says. “There is no hierarchy between us, we divide all the chores in the household. In fact, even if I’m home and might have dozed off, he cooks for me and wakes me up in time for the meal.”
She also credits the Azad Foundation for teaching her to drive, to interact with customers and handle other things she needs to do while going about her daily drives.
“My driver partners never deducted my share even if I couldn’t complete my daily share of designated trips. But why should someone else bare the brunt? Hence I decided to get a loan and get my own vehicle, it’s actually quite empowering,” Midde says. She says she even worked under a man, who runs cabs partnering with Ola, for about a month and officials there too are quite proud of her.
“At Uber, we do not differentiate on the basis on gender. When it comes to providing entrepreneurial opportunities we focus on eliminating entry barriers for all, regardless of their identity, and extend all possible support to register with Uber,” a spokesperson of the ride-sharing company said.
Along with Midde, Uber has Gulesh Chauhan in New Delhi as a driver partner, while two women are delivering for Uber Eats in Ahmedabad and Chennai , the spokesperson said.