It’s one thing to be a superbiker and cruise cross-country, and another to teach women to pick up driving as a life skill. Jai Bharathi would know this well. The founder of Moving Women (MoWo), a Hyderabad-based organisation that teaches underprivileged women driving, is on an 11,111 km tour of 20 cities across India in 40 days, to raise awareness about driving by women.
“There is a socio-cultural barrier against driving. It is considered a male domain. I want to change this mindset. For some of the women, in small cities and villages, even touching a two-wheeler is a major achievement,” says Bharathi. The initiative ‘Moving Boundaries’ was flagged off on the International Day of the Girl Child, on October 11, from Hyderabad. The campaign is funded by the Shell Foundation in partnership with the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, the UK.
According to Shipra Nayyar, Business Development Advisor, Shell Foundation, the idea was born out of the need to encourage more women to look at mobility as the road to better future. “In the last five years that we have worked with women on mobility, we realised that driving a car or riding a two-wheeler remains a distant dream for most women in the country. So this initiative is to bring awareness around gender-inclusive mobility. We also want to inform them the benefits of learning how to drive,” says Nayyar. As per the organisation’s research, only 11 percent of the people behind the wheel are women in India.
Change, however, is in the offing. Recently, the Women and Child Development Department of Telangana announced the opening up of an exclusive all-women motor training school in the state. “Though we have several organisations that encourage women to pick up the keys, what we lack is a single consortium which can inspire more women. So through this expedition, I want all such places to come together and maybe form a single consortium to aid women mobility,” she adds.
According to Nayyar, the pandemic has put a dent in the number of women in workforce and the mobility sector is one of the worst. “In Maharashtra, less than one percent women are issued a commercial travel licence,” she points out.
Under the campaign, Bharathi conducts workshops around employment opportunities as a driver, how to learn driving and how a loan can be availed to pick up a vehicle. The organisers believe that the campaign will be a success if half of the attendees learn driving and another half use it as a means for employment.
ROUTE MAP
Cities: Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi, Goa, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Amritsar, Srinagar, New Delhi, Patna, Kolkata, Ranchi, etc
Distance: 11,111 km
Time Period: 40 Days