Daring to drive: How Mumbai’s female rickshaw drivers are beating the odds

Updated On: 08 March, 2024 10:17 AM IST | Mumbai | Nascimento Pinto

Driving an autorickshaw on Mumbai’s streets is no easy task. Quite a few women have broken into this male-dominated profession with confidence in recent years. Mid-day Online spoke to two women who ferry passengers in Bandra not only for the money but also for the independence it brings

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Alka Jadhav and Tejashree Sawant have been driving their autorickshaws in Bandra East for the last four years. Photo: Alka Jadhav/Tejashree Sawant

Every morning, Alka Jadhav, an exuberant Bandra-based female autorickshaw driver wears her white coat and sets out to take passengers from Bandra East railway station to their destination from 9 am to 8 pm. She has been doing it for the last four years ever since she laid hands on the orange-coloured three-wheeler specially designated for women drivers in January 2018 . “In the mornings, I travel to BKC (Bandra Kurla Complex) to drop the passengers and in the evening, I drive around from Guru Nanak Hospital,” says the 33-year-old, who talks to us during her late lunch break. Jadhav believes in independence. It is something that she has firmly stood for ever since she got married in 2005 at a very young age.

Jadhav has donned many hats over the years. Driving the autorickshaw in the western suburb is only her latest one. She is one of the few female rickshaw drivers in Bandra East and in fact has been a catalyst for the other three-wheeler drivers in the neighbourhood too. Initially, the attempt started with more women filling the forms from the local mahila mandal (local women group) but they eventually dropped out due to different challenges, she says, and now Jadhav remains among the few who continue to drive around.

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Home / Lifestyle / Culture / Article / Daring to drive: How Mumbai’s female rickshaw drivers are beating the odds