NEW DELHI: The Delhi government on Friday inducted 13 new women drivers in the DTC bus fleet. The government said that with this, the DTC now has a total of 34 women drivers; one of the highest in any state. The government said that it has been consistently working on inducting more women as bus drivers. 10 women out of the 13 women were given a letter of appointment.
They joined after receiving training under the Delhi government’s ‘Mission Parivartan’ initiative. A total of 17 women are now part of DTC, while the rest have been recruited directly by DTC. In April 2022, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot kicked off ‘Mission Parivartan’, an initiative to train women to obtain their heavy motor vehicle (HMV) licences. The programme is currently providing training to its 4th batch of women candidates, having already completed training of 123 women till date.
The government in July also launched a scheme to provide financial support to women willing to take driver training to become professional taxi drivers in the future. As per the decision, 50 percent of the training (nearly Rs 4,800) for each woman is being borne by the Transport Department.
Their training is conducted at in-house driving training centres set up by the Delhi government at Burari, Loni and Sarai Kale Khan. As per the initiative, the government invited fleet owners and aggregators to sponsor the remaining 50 percent of the training cost for women seeking driving employment in these companies.
In February, the government relaxed the norms and eligibility criteria to recruit women as drivers within its bus operations. It reduced the minimum height criteria from 159 cm to 153 cm and the ‘experience criteria’ to one month for women applicants. The step increased opportunities for women employment within the combined fleet strength of nearly 7379 buses in DTC and DIMTS.