Bengaluru brings women to the driver’s seat

BENGALURU: Recognising the demand for more female drivers and providing women with new entrepreneurial skills, an association has been training underprivileged women from marginalised sections to drive a car and leverage these skills to become self-reliant.

The programme that was commenced by the Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Karnataka (AWAKE) will be providing training sessions for a month, while hand-holding women to pursue their choice of entrepreneurship. The programme will soon be expanded to other districts.

“Our objective is to increase the number of women drivers on the streets, with an increasing demand for it from companies. This will also allow women to have agency in their lives while cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit,” said Asha NR, president.

She added that this unique initiative is a win-win for both parties as companies want to hire exclusive female drivers for some of their employees and the women getting professionally trained, will help them have flexible work hours and an opportunity to thrive in their business.

The latest batch of around 40 women will begin training from Monday onwards and receive one hour of hands-on experience and two hours of stimulation of the wheel every day. On Saturdays, the attendees will be exposed to motivational and business development sessions. “This will be our third batch, all the women are between the age group 19-40 years.

After the completion of training, we will also provide them with jobs. Along with this women will be guided on how to obtain small loan facilities through banks based on annual income, how to apply to existing entrepreneurship programmes and other subsidies applicable.

We have tied up with all nationalised banks and invited them for special sessions,” said Sadashiva S, Head of Training Coordination, AWAKE. The programme is funded by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) in partnership with AWAKE.

Driving classes will be held at different locations according to the women who have enrolled and trained by Mandovi Motors, a driving school. The organisation will also help the females acquire a driving license. With the initiative Asha hopes that more women from troubled backgrounds can be self-sustaining however she added that there needs to be a serious behavioural and mindset change in the public and customers who rarely see women driving commercial vehicles such as taxis or autos.