“Women need not apply, Male candidate is preferred” – This is not just an advertisement for the possible job vacancies for some industries you have thought of where women are not preferred. But it’s the reflection of some preconceived notions we have regarding various jobs and roles in various industries. Though recently there are two cases where one woman in Delhi entered in a role which is till now, mostly offered to the males and other woman from Mumbai has to struggle for a job which sounds more like female’s domain but restricted to men for many decades.

The 30 years old Venkadarath Saritha from Telangana is appointed as a first female driver in Delhi Transport Corporation, it is a welcome move that in a male dominant profession a woman got an opportunity. Before joining DTC, Saritha worked as a driver of all women Sakha Cab run by Azad foundation in Delhi and on becoming first female driver of DTC she said , “This is going to be a challenging job for me, as a responsible driver, I will be careful about the passenger in my bus and traffic on roads”

Ironically, the story of Charu Khurana, a makeup artist from Mumbai was different. Charu Khurana, whose a makeup artist for many politicians including the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama, has fought six years of legal battle to break the gender barrier which restricted her from entering in Bollywood as a makeup artist. After six years uphill battle, she broke the 59 year old practice in Bollywood which barred women from entering this profession.

It is true that each job comes with its own requirements and those requirements are mainly the reasons for preferring a particular gender, which can be anything ranging from extensive traveling to night duty or the perception that certain professions were always preferred by men and not by women. However, here instead of capability many other factors like perception towards the job, safety, and environment as well as culture can have  influence. But now things are changing, women are proving themselves by taking up professions mostly preferred by men and also impeccably performing their professional roles. The examples are many cab services that were started as a special service for women where female drivers are hired for the safety of  female passengers, which further empowered the female drivers by providing them jobs and financial independence.

Recently one such initiative is taken up by Ex-Army Officer Shailendra who has worked in various IT companies after serving in Indian Army for 12 years. Shailendra started R2R (Rozi to Roti) and as a part of R2R he started “Women’s Cab” to provide safe journey to women as he said, “Has our society come this stage where every time a female member of our family ventures out alone we are restless until she is back home? It is indeed high time that we collectively work towards a safe and prosperous India for all”.

What differentiate R2R is, apart from driving skills the women are also trained in Self Defense, Vehicle maintenance, customer interactions and communication. For self-defense training is given by ex- defense personnel so that the female driver can also protect the passenger and not only herself. Apart from initial training, these women are also provided weekly six hours of training to enhance their confidence and make them more competitive.

In future, we hope to shape a society where women like Saritha and Charu come forward without limiting themselves to some particular jobs only because of their gender and some preconceived notions regarding some jobs.

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