A pink auto route to empowering women
The recent elections saw how much the women vote mattered to all parties, especially the Bharatiya Janata Party which had unleashed over the past years a slew of welfare benefits for them. Now, it needs to raise the proportion of women in the workforce and enable them to be economically empowered and not just beneficiaries of government largesse. India has rightly promotion of renewables, of which electric vehicles (EVs) are a crucial component. India needs to push up the share of women as the mobility service providers which, at the moment, is a dismal 0.01%. They lack vocational training and lack of ownership of vehicles. Of the 28 states with EV policies, only three — Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi — have initiatives targeting women, and only Delhi has made provisions to include women as drivers, according to the Union ministry of power.
The launch of 200 pink e-autos with a 90% subsidy in Amritsar was at step toward gender-responsive three-wheeler (3W) fleet electrification in India. The initiative is driven in part by the USAID-supported Cleaner Air and Better Health (CABH) project, which played a key role in addressing the gender disparity in the existing scheme. The original Rejuvenation of Autorickshaws in Amritsar through Holistic Intervention (Raahi) scheme focused on converting diesel autos to electric, but excluded women. The CABH team engaged in discussions with women interested in driving e-autos, which led to a memo suggesting changes that, in turn, led to the ministry of housing and urban affairs approving pink autos.
The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) facilitated the formation of four self-help groups (SHGs) comprising 38 women aiming to drive e-autos. An implementation plan was developed to identify, train, and retain women drivers, emphasising capacity building and community support. So far, 30 women have received pink autos and several applications are pending. It has been a life-changing experience for the women involved. Amritsar’s first female auto-driver, Sarabhjit Singh, a 38-year-old mother of three children, had to find a way to supplement her monthly income after her husband, a diesel auto driver, met with an accident in 2016. Earning just ₹6,500 every month as an embroiderer at a clothing factory was not enough to support her family. She learned to drive at night and began driving her husband’s auto. She faced hostility from people in her community and male auto drivers. But, she persisted with the support of her family. Today, she is a role model to many. With support from CEEW as part of the CABH project, she acquired a pink e-auto under the Raahi scheme. She is also the president of the first Amritsar SHG under the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) for driving and e-auto. She says, “I have been waiting for a pink auto for 1.5 years. Now that it is in hand and accessible to women, we can stand on our own feet, be independent and provide a quality education for our children”.
Raj, another auto driver in Amritsar, the sole breadwinner for her family, procured the pink auto under Raahi. She still faces resistance from male drivers, but says, “Now, after driving my pink auto for just a couple of hours, I earn around ₹600, which is significantly more than what I was earning as a house help. My happiness knows no bounds now”.
This initiative could be replicated across India. It will tick several boxes, empowerment of women, getting more women into the labour force, providing a safe mobility option for women, contributing to a cleaner environment and breaking gender stereotypes. You really cannot go wrong with that, can you?