Excited, nervous and eager — the four women cab drivers of Women on Wheels (WoW) cannot wait to begin work. Hyderabad’s first venture, WoW is a ‘women for women’ cab service. Dressed in their uniform — pista-green kurta and purple chudidar — the first batch of four women drivers who are currently undergoing GPS training finish their breakfast and sit to chat. The smiles on their faces reflect their eagerness to start work. This being the first phase, WoW started by Jyotsna Angara, founder of YoDee Foundation, targets to roll out 100 women cab drivers by March 2021.
Dhanalakshmi V D, Sharada T, Sharada D and Sowjanya M — all aged between 28 and 40 years — made a choice to take up driving for their financial independence much against the approval of their family.
As we begin our conversation, Sharada D gets teary-eyed. She is an instructor with Maruti Driving school and is a single parent. She wants to be an example to her daughters. “My husband left me and I have been taking care of my daughters. I want them to grow up strong, confident and economically independent. The only support I had when I decided to take up driving was Jyotsna madam. She literally hand-held us through our tough times,” said Sharada D.
To begin with, WoW will ply cabs in and around Hitec City, Madhapur and Gachibowli, only during the day time. They will work five days a week. “As we move ahead and add more drivers, more areas will be covered and timings will be extended. The cab services can be booked online through EasyCommute App. The women drivers, besides driving, were trained in confidence building, road etiquette and self-defence. They were also given orientation in concept of ‘atithi devo bhava’ (the guest is god). Training in first aid, small repairs, basic English and communication skills, topography of the city, Google Maps-literacy were also part of their training,” says Jyotsna.
Jyotsna added that the vehicles are financed by the Women and Child Welfare Department and subsidised to the extent of 35% and the government even provided 10% margin money required.
Sharing that it was her sheer need to strengthen their financial status that made her take up this career, Dhanalakshmi V says, “My husband’s earning as an electrician isn’t sufficient to foot the medical bills of my elder son. He has a hole in his heart and needs medical attention quite often.” What’s the difficulty that she faced?
“To be behind the wheels is a confident feeling but the most difficult part for me was to cross the bigger speed breakers smoothly,” she laughs. T Sharada joins, “Also the slope climbing. Hand brake and accelerator trick,” she smiles.
While T Sharada’s husband who is also a driver didn’t think much of her driving until one day when their daughter forced him to hand over the steering to her mother. “We are returning from our village. It was getting dark and my husband was tired. Even then he insisted he would drive. As night fell, my daughter sternly told her father to hand over the steering wheel to me and said she would feel much safer if I drove us all back home. My husband had no choice but to switch seats. After that day, he never taunted me about my choice,” smiles Sharada.
Women on Wheels is supported by Government of Telangana, Department of Women Development and Child Welfare. TSRTC, Transport Department, Police, Sultan-Ul-Uloom Education Society, Radisson Blu, We Connect, Area 9 Ladies Circle of Round Table India and a few others.
“YoDee, means Stree Shakthi. The objective of WoW is not for profit entities. It is to unite women and ideas to support their personal and professional life,” informs Pinky Singh of YoDee. Talking about future plans, Jyotsna shares that Sh(e) Autos are on the anvil. These electrical autos again will be by women for women. “The details of the same are being worked out and the same will be shared as soon as we are ready to roll out. To start with, we will roll out 100 autos,” adds Jyotsna.
Did the ladies face any mishaps — small or big — while learning? “No,” Sharada says with pride. “None of our cars got even a minor scratch. That is also because we learnt in the simulator first. That gave us an idea of the steering wheel angles, distance to be maintained, U-turns etc,” adds Sowjanya. “We took a lot of time to master reverse parking,” laughs Dhanalakshmi.