KOCHI: The She-Taxi initiative was launched in 2014 by the Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation, under the Gender Park initiative of the Social Justice Department. At the time, it was mooted as a novel initiative that would increase the confidence of women drivers in the state while also ensuring safe travel. Many women had come forward to join the initiative.
However, the initiative ceased operations in 2018. It resumed services in 2020 to ferry patients to hospitals during the first wave of the pandemic. But now, due to the unavailability of riders and apathy of the authorities, has once again left She-Taxi drivers in the lurch.
When the project was rolled out, Thiruvananthapuram had the most number of cabs (25), followed by Kochi (15) and Kozhikode (5). However, hardly five cabs are currently functional in each of these districts. Jaicy Ramesh, the former president of She-Taxi Owners’ and Drivers’ Federation, who has been driving She Taxi since its launch, says most of the women dropped out due to financial crunch. “I continued since it was an initiative meant to protect and empower women. Many of us visited the officials in charge of the project and put forth suggestions like demand for a call centre to make the taxi service more effective,” says Jaicy.
She adds that they are ready to provide round-the-clock service. “Since April 2020 during the pandemic, we have been operating in the city to transport elderly patients to the hospitals and deliver medicines,” says Jaicy. She also claims that the passes during the pandemic lockdown were misused and she stepped down from the federation due to differences in opinion with its members.
Lack of tech
Amrithavalli V, another She-Taxi driver in the capital city, says they hardly get any rides and all are under crushing debt. “Vehicle maintenance cost is also high and we have loans that are yet to be paid. Though the initiative made a comeback in 2020 with an online booking system and GPS, a third-party vendor who was supposed to help us advance our resources, went back on it and left us struggling,” she says. “It was a good project and supported and empowered women for some time after it was implemented.
However, due to the negligence of the authorities, many She-Taxi drivers have left,” she adds. Ernakulam-based She-Taxi drivers opined that online taxi services like Ola and Uber further ate into their market. She-Taxi lacks a proper mobile application and related online services, dulling its chances of survival further. “The Omicron spread also added to the problems. We haven’t been able to get many rides as most of the people to depend on private vehicles for transportation,” says a She-Taxi driver from Kochi. Though TNIE contacted the authorities in charge of the She-Taxi project, they refused to comment on the issues raised by the taxi drivers.