Driver’s seat still eludes women in DTC
NEW DELHI: In April 2015, Venkadarath Saritha became the first woman to be enrolled as a bus driver in the DTC. Till August 9, 2021, she remains the only woman driver in the city’s public bus operator.
Around 4.45am, the Sarojini Nagar bus depot run by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) comes alive with a bunch of men entering the premises and heading straight to the “resting room” to change into their uniforms. While some of them are conductors, the others are bus drivers. Ten minutes later, the roaring noise of a Bullet bike entering the depot makes heads turn.
Riding the bike is 36-year old Saritha who goes on with her usual drill of parking her twowheeler, “not looking here and there” and heading straight to the attendance counter to collect her duty slip for the day.
Her joining came with a lot of hope that Delhi will have a greater presence of women in the operation of its state-run buses which carry at least 4.2 million passengers every day. But, six years later, Saritha continues to be the only female bus driver Delhi has ever got. To be sure, DTC has women working as bus conductors and marshals. Delhi has 6,750 operational buses which includes 3,760 owned by DTC and 2,990 buses run under the cluster scheme.
“Look around, you can see how things are here. It takes a lot of adjusting to fit into this environment. Unlike others, I come wearing the uniform from my home. There is one resting room, which has beds, etc but it is used by the men. After six years of working here, the DTC administration listened to our request, and has now agreed to build a separate resting room for women employees. A defunct room was cleaned and emptied just last month with a bed being placed there, but it remains shut and is still not yet accessible to us,” Saritha said.
HT found the room locked during a visit to the depot. One of the many dingy and dark corridors inside the depot leads to the only accessible woman’s washroom. “The staff working in the administration have a different one. But, for me and the other female conductors and bus marshals, it is this single Indian style toilet which is not cleaned frequently. Also, I do not know why, but I have seen men using it too despite having more toilets than us,” she said.
“That is why I do not even use it. I use the toilets in Noida Sector 62, Dhaula Kuan or Nauroji Nagar as they are way cleaner and have more lighting. Even if I have the urge to relieve myself, I have to hold on to it until I reach any of these three places which are on my bus route,” Saritha said, while adjusting herself in the drivers’ seat of an AC bus on route 392 — Mayapuri Chowk to Noida Sector 62.
Data accessed by HT showed that of the total 28,949 employees of DTC, as on Monday, 28,149 (97.2%) were male, while 800 (2.7%) were female. Besides just one woman bus driver, DTC has 15,433 conductors of which 14,702 (95.2%) are men and 731 (4.7%) are women.
RS Minhas, deputy chief general manager (public relations), DTC said the state transport utility initiated a fresh recruitment process for drivers and conductors in March this year in preparation for the new bus procurement plans.
“We tried to recruit woman drivers this time. But, we have found that there are hardly any women who possess a heavy vehicle driving licence that is required to drive a DTC or cluster bus. Moreover, for the post of driver, one must also have a driving experience of three years, which means the licence should be at least three years old. Few women fits this criteria. Overall also, if we see, the number of woman applicants to job of driver are close to nil,” he said.
Omkari, 43, who goes by her first name, and her friend were among the select few women who applied to be DTC bus drivers this year. “But, both of us got rejected because our heavy vehicle driving licence was just four months old. I hope they waive off this criteria, and if they are doubtful of our driving skills or fear safety of passengers, they must make us undergo rigorous training for three months and test us after the course,’ she said. Omkari is a faculty at NGO Azad Foundation’s women’s only driving school in Shahdara. Prior to this, she drove commercial taxis for more than five years.
Amrita Gupta, director-research advocacy and communications at Azad Foundation, which also trained and helped induct Saritha in 2015, said it recently held a meeting with transport minister Kailash Gahlot who suggested conducting an evidence-based policy review on this matter and get back to the government with its findings.
“In 2020, during the pandemic Azad Foundation trained at least 12 drivers who successfully received heavy vehicle licence from the state transport department. However, according to the current rules, the heavy vehicle licence has to be achieved three years in advance for them to apply. We have requested the Delhi government to kindly to set a precedent by waiving off the minimum period required for applying for the position in DTC. Former DTC MD Debashree Mukherjee had done this in 2015, and that is how Saritha got inducted,” said Gupta.
A senior DTC official said in order to attract more woman applicants, it even reduced the minimum height criteria from 162 centimetres to 159 centimetres. But, Gupta said even after the reduction, the criteria continues to be restrictive as in India the average height of women is less than 160cm. “This works as a deterrent for their inclusion even if they are trained. Now, buses come with adjustable seats, hence we request a revision of this restrictive height criterion in today’s technologically advanced environment, and urge the Delhi government to help modify this archaic rule. This will also attract many young women to establish their career in the transport system especially at a time when the Delhi government is in the process of procuring at least 3,500 new buses,” said Gupta.
But, for Saritha, who regularly has to dispel rumours of her having quit her job, the role of a DTC bus driver has been empowering beyond her imagination. She started in DTC as a driver with a salary of about ₹12,000 per month, and now she earns about ₹24,000 a month.
“I have to give credit to the DTC where it is due. They have been considerate towards me and my needs. For everyone else, the duty is spread between night shift and day shift. But, the DTC made an exception for me and I am given only day duty. Secondly, the bus route for drivers is changed every month. But, for me, they have kept the route fixed (route 392),” Saritha said as she headed back to her home in Govindpuri on her olive colour Enfield bike.