KOLKATA: Kolkata government has initiated a scheme to empower women, by training them to drive autos for their livelihood. Women from a lower income family will be trained by an auto union leader Gopal, in South Kolkata. A statement released by him said that 60 women have been trained till now. “If a woman can be a prime minister, a president, and a speaker, then why can't they drive autos? These women belong to lower income family and we are training them to be independent.”
One the training is completed, they will initiate a service called Pink, which will exclusively cater to women passengers in the city. “My husband also drives auto. It is really difficult to manage our lives on an income of one person, so I started driving auto for livelihood,” a woman said. The Maharashtra government last year had also initiated a scheme where women autorickshaw drivers had hit the roads in Mumbai. The scheme gave a 5 per cent reservation in rickshaw permits for women.
