BENGALURU: M Vijaya, a native of Thiruvannamalai and a resident of the city, is elated. She is one of the 12 women who has took driving classes conducted by Maruti Suzuki and is now qualified to drive for ‘TaxShe’ a cab service whose drivers are women.
On Wednesday, additional commissioner of police (traffic) Dr M A Saleem felicitated these 12 women in a programme organised by Maruti Suzuki. “I am a very happy woman today. Prior to this, I used to work with a office house-keeping service provider.
Today, I can earn a living by driving people around, normally considered as a male occupation. I have two children and my husband does not stay with me. This is a huge opportunity for me to get ahead in life, considering that I don’t even know English,” said Vijaya.
Men and women who are economically backward are trained in professional driving under ‘Unnati’, a CSR initiative by Maruti Suzuki. Through Unnati, the company aims to impart safe driving skills and encourage men and women to take up driving as a profession and add to the workforce of India, said company officials.
These women have been trained over a period of three months with almost 50 hours of on road training. The training programme included training in softer skills like customer relations, time management. They have been taken in as full-time employees by TaxShe, whose aim is to provide women drivers on call.