Road pioneers: MSRTC’s first women drivers recount their journeys

Some are picking up the baton of driver fathers, while others have learnt new skills to support their families; despite the challenges, the drivers are proud to be opening a new road for women

“I learnt driving by sitting next to my father and watching him drive,” says Anjum Shaikh, who is part of the first batch of 28 women drivers recently recruited by the State-run Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC).

Ms. Shaikh’s father was also an MSRTC driver who used work at the same bus depot where she works now. “I love driving. I am driving since the age of 16. I used to watch my father drive MSTRC buses when I was young and get fascinated looking at him drive the bus with so much ease. My family tells me, I drive just like him,” says the 28-year-old, the youngest in the family of seven who live in Shevgaon, Ahmednagar.

Her retired father had come to drop her in Pune when she got selected for MSRTC’s Pune division. Ms. Shaikh and her friend Bhagayshree — also a driver with the service who hails from Yavatmal in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra — rent a room together for ₹4,000. She misses her family and goes to visit them whenever she can, but the thrill of her job has not faded. “I used to drive my family around in our car, but driving the bus is an altogether different feeling. I will never forget my first day, I drove on the Solapur highway,” she exclaimed.

Reshma Dubey, the 36-year-old mother of two 12-year-olds, is also very happy to be among the first woman drivers for the State-run buses, though her journey to this achievement has not been easy. “My family had to go through a financial crisis so that I was able to complete the 24 months training in Pune. We have spent ₹2.5 lakh on stay as ₹10,000 was the rent for temporary accommodation. I had to send my children to my in-laws in the village,” she recalls.

The COVID-19 pandemic also complicated the process; despite being recruited in 2019, she was able to join the service only in June 2023. “But I enjoy driving, all my stress goes away when I am behind the wheels. I am very cheerful while I complete my eight-hour shift. Sometimes when it gets late, my husband comes to pick me up at the depot; otherwise, I ride my Scooty and go home which is 40 kilometres away,” she says.

Ms. Dubey also gives her father credit, both for her skill at the wheel and her confidence. “My father taught me driving. He always told me, ‘You should know everything.’ He treated me and both my sisters equally, and said, ‘There is nothing that a man can do, and a woman cannot’. He would have been very happy to watch me drive the buses, but he passed away in 2016.”

Mukta Jadhav is the 30-year-old breadwinner for her family of three. “I used to like driving but never got a chance to drive any vehicle; and when I did, I am driving a State-run bus,” she giggles. She came across the advertisement of MSRTC looking for women drivers in 2019, applied and got through. “I wish to buy my own car someday and take my parents for a drive” she says.