Ola Cabs to create 50, 000 women driver-entrepreneurs

Following the horrifying Uber Rape case last year, (which made clear that the perceived “safest mode of transport” is in fact not so safe) a surge of cab companies started hiring women cabbies. Taking this initiative one step further, one of the most popular cab companies in India, Ola Cabs, announced that they will be creating 50, 000 jobs for women, which will give India a large number of women driver –entrepreneurs.

Recently, the company declared that they will introduce women chauffeurs in six cities across the country. This will be a joint venture for Ola, which will be partnering with ‘Empower Pragathi’, an investee company of NSDC and Automotive Skills Development Council (ASDC)- which will also assist Ola in training the chosen women. Starting with Delhi, the programme will be introduced in major cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune.

According to a report by Trak.in, Mr. Arvind Singhatiya, Vice President, Ola Cabs, said, “This initiative is in line with Ola’s mission to up-skill drivers and help them become entrepreneurs. We believe that a better world begins with women and empowering them to be entrepreneurs can create a balanced ecosystem in this space… Ola,as a technology platform will help create opportunities for these trained drivers by giving them access to infrastructure, financing and continuous revenue.”

Women Cabbies
Picture By: First Post

According to the same report, the training will include: driving theory and practice, basic mechanic skills, map reading, communication and spoken English classes and imparting knowledge of hard and soft skills. The women for the same will be chosen from different sections of the society. An ambitious project, when implemented, this initiative will help women from the lower sections of the society gain financial independence.

New Kerala.com further reported CEO of ASDC, Sunil K. Chaturvedi, saying: "We have an ambitious target to train more than fifteen million youth by 2025. Drivers would account for a large chunk out of these numbers and we are confident that many of these would be women candidates."

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