After 'She Taxi', now 'Kudumbashree Travels'
Wielding the steering with confidence and grit, these eight women will roll out the exclusive women-driven taxis on city routes. Close on the heels of Gender Park’s ‘She-Taxis’, launched in the city a few days ago, Kudumbashree Mission’s initiative ‘Kudumbashree Travels’ is readying eight white Nano cabs for the capital. Driven by trained women drivers, the cabs are meant for women and elderly couples.
“This project is conceived as an enterprise model aiming to make women self-reliant by finding a source of income on their own. A call centre will function to make available the taxi service to passengers,” said Kudumbashree executive director K B Valsalakumari. The cars were bought with the subsidy provided by Kudumbashree and a bank loan was also arranged.
The service will be on from 6 am to 8 pm on all days. Mainly, the taxis would focus on busy spots such as railway stations, bus stations and Technopark area. Salient features of the cabs are computerised billing facility, a partition between the driver and passenger and display of a set of emergency numbers in the car. The logo of Kudumbashree and the name ‘Kudumbashree Travels’ would be emblazoned.
Well-trained women are being assigned the task to drive. All have undergone a seven-month training given by Kudumbashree.
“I am thrilled. Happy that I can also generate an income for my family along with my husband,” said one among the team of drivers Valsala M, a mother of two girls from Vilappil panchayat. As a member of Kudumbashree, she used to go for work as part of the employment guarantee scheme, but stopped after she fell sick.
Meanwhile, the words of Renjini V from Neeramankara are oozing with confidence. “I have been holding the driving licence for the past five years and have been driving cars. I am sure this initiative will do well,” she said.
After the launch in the capital city, the next location to start the taxi service would be Kochi. An official flag-off ceremony will take place shortly here and if the current plan goes well, the cabs would start service from the very next day of the launch.