Chhattisgarh’s first female commercial pilot - Twinkle Nagdive

Chhattisgarh is a state torn between Maoists struggles. It is one of those states where women are mostly marginalised. From the same state has come a 23-year-old girl who is hired by Indigo airlines as a pilot. Twinkle Nagdive, a passout from Delhi Public School, Bhilai has finally made her childhood dream come true of flying airplanes.

“When I was in school, I used to collect pictures of aircrafts and use to think about an aircraft flies. Like almost all the girls, my friends wanted to be either doctors or engineers, but I wanted to do something different," she said.

A resident of Raipur, Twinkle has gone beyond the glass ceiling in the highly gendered professional space. Belonging to a middle-class family, Twinkle was hard working and dedicated towards her studies right from her childhood. Daughter of a forest official, she took her training from the Private Pilot Licence from Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA), Goa. After her training got over, she also taught in the same institute for a year before getting a call from Indigo.

Also Read: She wanted to fly high and she did: Meet Captain Jaswinder Kaur from Go Air

Talking about her being a girl into this profession, she said she never cared about the people who tried to discourage her. She further mentioned that she is waiting to get called on duty by the airlines and till then she has to get her pre-flying training.

In a total of about 130000 pilots around the world, Twinkle is among the dismal 3% that is 4000 female pilots, according to International Society of Women Airline Pilots.

Picture Credit- TOI