COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore division of TNSTC comprises Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Tiruppur, and Erode districts, and has 5,873 conductors. The grim fact being only two of them are women, one of whom joined a month ago.
Buela T alias Sumathi from Sungam in Coimbatore has been in service for over a decade, and is TNSTC’s first woman conductor in Coimbatore district. Suganya K, who joined in January 2025 on compassionate grounds after her husband’s death, is the first woman conductor in Nilgiris district. Both are assigned duty from 12.00 pm - 10.45 pm and 5.40 am - 12.00 pm.
Sumathi, a conductor on route 2, initially wanted to join the police force. “I could not join the police force as I had to take care of my child,” said Sumathi, who was among the four women selected for the job in 2014. Of the other three, two have quit and another woman moved to clerical work.
Sumathi recalled that officers, colleagues and passengers reacted with surprise upon seeing a woman conductor. In due course of time, co-workers treated me as one of their own, she said. Recalling a difficult situation, Sumathi said,
“In 2019, on bus route 39, a drunk man caused lot of trouble from the SITRA bus stop in Avinashi Road. I asked the driver to take the bus to Peelamedu police station, and we turned him over to police. I was upset that nobody else on the bus helped me.”
Suganya K, a resident of Sholurmattam village in the Nilgiris, who lost her husband in 2023, works on route 892 (Sholurmattam- Kotagiri) since January 29.
“After losing my husband, who was a conductor in the Kotagiri branch, I faced a financial burden with two daughters to support. Employees told me to apply for a job under compassionate grounds. I applied in 2024. After one-month training in Pollachi, I joined the service. On the first day, I was very scared, but everyone was so supportive,” she said.
“As we halt the bus in our village, I go home. During menstruation I avail of leave and compensate for it by working on other days,” she said.