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Pink autorickshaws for women commuters, driven by women will soon hit Mumbai roads.
Autorickshaws specifically for women to start plying in Mumbai by the end of February, according to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Transport Authority (MMRTA). The Andheri RTO has issued autorickshaw permits to over 500 women through a lottery process. There are 1316 permits which remain to be allotted and the government seeks more applications from women. The government has introduced a five percent reservation for women autorickshaw drivers.
Certain rules have been relaxed for the female applicants and they will get their permits sooner than their male counterparts. However, most of the rules are same for the drivers of both genders. They have to be fluent in speaking Marathi and must have lived in Maharashtra for at least 15 years.
The autorickshaws will carry mostly female commuters and their families, according to MMRTA. However, there is no restriction on carrying male passengers. Women can commute in these autos if they consider it to be a safer option.
The autorickshaws will be coloured either in pink or light orange, so that it is easily identifiable by the commuters as catering to women only. The association of a particular colour with women might be problematic at certain levels but this is a welcome initiative as it is not only a step in the direction of the safety of women commuters but it will also create employment for many women and encourage them. It will also increase the visibility of women on the city roads which are usually dominated by the black and yellow autos driven by men.
The ‘pink auto’ initiative has been launched in other cities as well. Mumbai isn’t the first. Ranchi and Gurgaon had started it following the 2012 Delhi gangrape. Ranchi had to shut down the service in 2015 due to permit issues. The Gurgaon pink auto service was closed down due to lack of safety features and was relaunched again 2015 with better features. After several complaints of sexual harassment from women commuters in Odisha, Buhbaneshwar and Cuttack initiated the pink auto service.
Ensuring safe transport is a significant stride in empowering women and providing them with a safe sphere for their growth and development, allowing them to work and study with a sense of security.
Here’s wishing the best to this initiative and hoping that it is a success.
Image via DNA
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There are many mountains I need to climb just to be, just to live my life, just to have my say... because they are mountains you've built to oppress women.
Trigger Warning: This deals with various kinds of violence against women including rape, and may be triggering for survivors.
I haven’t climbed a literal mountain yet Was busy with the metaphorical ones – born a woman Fighting for the air that should have come free And I am one of the privileged ones, I realize that
Yet, if I get passionate, just like you do I will pay for it – with burden, shame, – and possibly a life to carry So, my mountains are the laws you overturn My mountains are the empty shelves where there should have been pills
When people picked my dadi to place her on the floor, the sheet on why she lay tore. The caretaker came to me and said, ‘Just because you touched her, one of the men carrying her lost his balance.’
The death of my grandmother shattered me. We shared a special bond – she made me feel like I was the best in the world, perfect in every respect.
Apart from losing a person who I loved, her death was also a rude awakening for me about the discrimination women face when it comes to performing the last rites of their loved ones.
On January 23 this year, I lost my 95 year old grandmother (dadi) Nirmala Devi to cardiac arrest. She was that one person who unabashedly praised me. The evening before her death she praised the tea I had made and said that I make better tea than my brother (my brother and I are always competing about who makes the best chai).
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