Delhi government to bear 50% cost to train woman as commercial drivers

In a bid to provide employment opportunities to women in the public transportation sector, the Delhi government will bear 50% of the cost for each woman undergoing training at its centres.

The government launched a scheme on Monday to provide financial support to women willing to take driver training to become professional taxi drivers in future, said an official statement.

50% of the training cost i.e. approximately Rs 4,800 would be borne by the transport department for each woman. The training of women will be conducted at in-house driving training centres set up by the government at Burari, Loni and Sarai Kale Khan.

Under the initiative, the government will invite fleet owners and aggregators to sponsor the remaining 50% of the training cost for women seeking driving employment in these companies.

"It will work with fleet owners and aggregators to set up an optimal mechanism so that women trained through the initiative receive guaranteed jobs in these companies after completion of the training," read the statement.

The statement said that the transport department will soon issue an advertisement seeking Expression of Interest (EoI) from fleet owners and aggregators for the scheme and gauge the number of women who can be trained under such an initiative.

"Various women through different forums have come out and spoke about their interest and zeal to work as taxi drivers to earn their livelihood," it added.

Delhi government adopted the Electric Vehicle Policy in 2020 and is currently in the process of adopting the Delhi Motor Vehicle Aggregator Scheme which will mandate phase-wise adoption and increase in the share of electric vehicles within the fleet of cab aggregators.

"The increase in share of electric vehicles in taxi fleets will enhance opportunities for women to be employed as drivers as due to fewer mechanical parts and automatic steering wheel, electric vehicles are much easier to drive and less strenuous in operation," it said.

In February, Delhi Government relaxed the norms and eligibility criteria to recruit more women as drivers within its bus operations. It also reduced minimum height criteria from 159cm to 153cm and 'experience criteria' for induction as bus drivers to one month for women applicants.

In April, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot kicked off 'Mission Parivartan', an initiative to train women to obtain their Heavy Motor Vehicle (HMV) licenses at Society for Driving Training Institute (SDTI) in Burari.

"In the last couple of months we have implemented multiple initiatives to increase participation of women in the transportation workforce. The objective is that women come forward and become important anchor of Delhi’s public transportation. We have now inducted women as bus drivers within DTC. With the implementation of this initiative, the day is not far when a large number of women would be visible as drivers for various public modes of transportation on Delhi’s roads," Gahlot said.