She is the cynosure of all eyes at Anand Vihar in East Delhi where she lives. While men respect her, women are in awe of her – many tell her they too want to be like her. And Sufina happily guides them to the Sakha-Azad Foundation office. “I want these women to break their shackles,” she says, adding, “I will ensure my daughters study as much as they want to. One of them wants to be pilot.” Sufina is one of the 12 chauffeurs of the ‘Driven by Women for Women and Families’ initiative at IGI Terminal 3, New Delhi, that provides women-driven cab service for women travellers.
The initiative has been launched by Sakha Consulting Wings under its brand name ‘Women With Wheels’. All the women drivers have been trained in driving and self-defence by its strategic partner Azad Foundation. available for hire 24x7 from Sakha ‘Women With Wheels’ exclusive booth at Arrival Forecourt T3. But this was not always so. There was a time when she was battered like many others. How she transformed into a confident woman is an extraordinary tale of grit. Sufina was married at 16 to a daily wager and became a mother at 18. Often, there was no food at home.
But Sufina, now 28, had fire in her belly. She wanted to rise over this pitiable situation. So, when a Sakha volunteer approached her, it felt godsend. “They told me to enrol for driver’s training. The thought that I could turn financially independent excited me, but I was too scared. I knew neither my husband nor my parents would agree. But I am glad that Sakha volunteer kept on pestering me, and I enrolled.” The journey ahead was not easy. While her parents expressed displeasure, her husband, a painter, didn’t stop at that. “He would beat me up and lock me up before going out for work,” she says, quickly adding that now her husband is most supportive of her work.
Revisiting her past, Sufina says, “One day I decided that enough was enough. I had to find a way out. I took my mother into confidence. So after my husband would leave for work, my mother would come and open the door for me, and I would promise her that I’d be back before he returns home. She didn’t want any altercation with her son-in-law.” That’s how Sufina completed her driver’s training. She got her first job as a private chauffeur where she worked for over two years. All this while her husband never got to know that she was working for, she adopted the same modus operandi that she did when she underwent training. She was always back before her husband returned.
But the changes in her did make him suspicious. And one day, as was his habit, when he raised his hand, Sufina stood up telling him that she will not take it anymore. “I was fed up of the daily beatings. By this time, I had also saved some money from my salary,” she says, adding, “He was stunned, but he stopped and has never hit me again.” Then one day, her husband got very sick. Despite their differences, Sufina admitted him to a private nursing home and got him treated with her savings.
“It was then that he started to trust me and understood the importance of my job. I am happy he has changed, but I often wonder why does a woman have to undergo such stifling circumstances to prove herself. What if he had never fallen sick?” she asks pensively. That’s a big question for all you men out there!