Meet the women behind the wheels

With old Hindi songs playing silently in the background, an orangish-black auto rickshaw catches my eye. What strikes me first and foremost is the person at the wheels. Dressed in a simple Salwar Kameez, with a bindi on her forehead, green bangles on both hands and a bright smile on her face is Ashwini Dongle, a lower- middle class ordinary housewife turned ‘rickshawali’ from Thane.

In 2014, Anamika Bhalerao became the 1^st lady auto rickshaw driver in Thane. Today, there are as many as 10-12 lady auto rickshaw drivers in Thane. According to Rekha Gadgil, a B.COM graduate and also an auto rickshaw driver, “the credit mainly goes to Anamika. She has been our source of inspiration and the pillar of our support ever since the beginning. Anamika had the guts and dared to do something which we never thought women might do”.

Ashwini Dongle

The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), with the help of the Deputy Commissioner Of Traffic Police (DCP) Dr. Rashmi Karandikar has implemented a new policy wherein some percentage of seats would be reserved for women auto rickshaw drivers. Dongle says “I decided to make the most out of this policy. Long back, my husband who is also an auto driver, taught me how to drive an auto. I used to practice just for fun. But looking at Anamika and how she drives inspired me to take the auto onto the roads and work as a professional. I now see it as a kind of a social service.”

When I started, recalls Gadgil, I paid an amount as commission to the owner of the auto I was driving. Later, I realized that half my income only went in this. Then I thought that maybe it would be more profitable if I were to buy an auto myself. If I need to make a mark in this profession, I need to dedicate myself to it entirely. The savings I kept from my job enabled me to purchase an auto. I believe in being independent and in a way driving an auto gives me a sense of freedom.

On asking how these women manage to work in a male dominated profession, they say, that while most men are supportive, some do pass snide comments. There is a lot of politics involved too. Though we have a lot of supporters from our area, drivers from other areas of Thane do not like us women driving and even parking our vehicles in their stands. Sometimes they cut the line and think its fine just because we are women. It hurts the male ego when we overtake them and go ahead. Then they curse and abuse us. But we are here for a reason- to serve people. We merely ignore the comments and stares we often get from passers- by.

Adding to it further Dongle says that it does not matter what others say about her as long as her family supports her. She says that the kind of encouragement provided by her husband and in laws is incredible and that is what keeps her going. All that hard work otherwise would have just gone down the drain!

It is women like Gadgil, Bhalerao, Dongle and others that are attempting to change the perception of people that women can’t drive autos and can’t enter certain restricted professions. They say, when women can fly planes, why can’t we drive autos?