BHUBANESWAR: Sushree Shatabdika Panda was disillusioned as she was unable to crack interviews for private jobs. An MCA degree holder from Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), she sat for several tests but it just did not work out.
The 26-yeard-old, a resident of Jajpur district’s Barchana, then decided to choose her own path. She had to be financially independent. “After the initial setbacks, I decided to learn professional driving but found coaching centres were charging too high, from Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 as fees,” she said.
Shatabdika, whose father is a priest, enrolled with the Heavy Motor Vehicle-Driver Training Institute (DTI) in Chhatia. This is when she came across the ‘Ama SuVahak’ scheme of Commerce and Transport department which offered a clear path for her plans along with seamless financial assistance and handholding support. She could own a vehicle and be the driver of her fate.
Under the scheme rolled out last month, the department gives women an opportunity to be what it calls ‘mobility entrepreneurs.’ Eligible beneficiaries can buy a vehicle with a cost ceiling of Rs 10 lakh. Towards down payment, the department’s share stands at 10 per cent of the on-road price while the beneficiary pays five per cent. The rest 85 per cent comes in terms of interest-free loan to be repaid in five years.
“In the last quarter of 2025, when the Transport department officials informed me about the scheme, I immediately decided to grab the opportunity,” she said. She now owns and drives a Swift Dzire CNG in her district.
She is not the only one whom the Ama SuVahak scheme has empowered and given a new purpose. Married at the age of 16 in Haryana, Santoshi Deo (35) of Badaamuni village in Keonjhar district faced years of dowry harassment and domestic violence. Abandoned by her husband, she returned to Keonjhar as a school dropout and single mother, carrying the responsibility of raising her daughter.
Inspired by a woman auto-rickshaw driver of Chennai, Santoshi broke the gender barrier in 2015 by becoming Keonjhar’s first woman auto-rickshaw driver. Her family was initially opposed to her decision of driving an auto-rickshaw. Even showrooms refused to sell her the vehicle saying a woman cannot drive it.
However, Santoshi was undeterred. She availed a loan to purchase an auto-rickshaw. In 2021, she became the state’s first woman driver of Mo Bus, now Ama Bus, in Bhubaneswar.
“My parents had a tiffin stall and my father passed away in 2017. I was not qualified to find a job and the upbringing of my daughter was a huge responsibility which is why I pursued a career in driving,” she said. Her dreams took a leap when the government offered the interest-free loan under Ama SuVahak. A Class VII dropout, Santoshi’s now owns and drives an Ertiga.
Twenty-nine-year-old Janaki Sahu, a native of Kalarangiatta village in Jajpur, was trained in the state government-run Driving Training Institute. She even worked with a private company in Jharsuguda, operating a 10-tonne forklift heavy-duty material handling machine. As a child, she had seen men drive heavy vehicles in mines. “There was always a desire within me to change this notion and become a driver. My husband helped me learn to ride a motorcycle and then motivated me to become a heavy vehicle driver,” said Janaki.
However, she had quit her job of a forklift operator to return to Jajpur as her family needed her and that’s when Ama SuVahak scheme provided her an opportunity to purchase a car and do business around her home.
In a short span, the scheme has already created six ‘mobility entrepreneurs.’ Apart from Santoshi, Janaki and Shatabdika, three other Suchitra Sethi, Dharitri Sahu and Usharani Sahu have started their new journey in life. They were handed over keys of their vehicles at a state-level function recently. The Ama SuVahak scheme targets to create 1,100 women mobility entrepreneurs in four years.