Kathmandu:

We are perhaps one of the few countries in Southeast Asia to boast of women who are in the driver’s seat, literally. Our SAFA tempo (electric three wheel vehicles) drivers are a force to reckon with.

It is one thing to be a skilled driver, but manoeuvring a vehicle with passengers over uneven, potholed roads, not to mention bossy traffic cops and quarrelsome passengers, requires plenty of courage and attitude.

Ever since SAFA tempo was introduced here in the mid nineties, Nepali women have taken up this profession defying domestic as well as social norms. Today a woman behind the steering wheel of SAFA tempo is a common enough sight, which is also an indication of the social acceptance of the driving profession for women.

And seeing that woman can be trusted behind the wheel, a few non-governmental organisations have employed a number of women as drivers on contract.

Maya Majhi — DANIDA, Education Sector Advisory Team (ESAT), Sangita Thapa — DFID, Enabling State Programme (ESP), Kamala Tamang — UNDP, Decetralise Local Governance Support Programme (DLGSP), Harmita Shrestha — UNDP, Mainstreaming Gender Equity Programme (MGEP), and Sharmila Rai — Swati, are among the few women who have been appointed as driving staff.

“I never ever thought I would drive as a profession,” says Sangita Thapa. After completing her school education, she had come to Kathmandu to pursue higher studies. During her stint at the women’s cooperative she got to thinking whether or not women could be drivers as “all the staff were women but the driver was male”.

She joined Sayapatri Driving Centre as a receptionist where she learned how to drive. “But I was not sure I could drive on the road,” she says. But she soon excelled in driving a four-wheeler too. She was offered the job at the ESP the same month she got her licence. “They found my name and phone number from the list of names acquiring licence pasted on the wall of traffic police office,” she says.

Thapa has been with ESP for the last four years and she “really happy with my job”. And why not as she is paid handsomely (beyond a driver’s dream) and colleagues are friendly and caring.

Swati’s Sharmila Rai shares a similar experience. Rai, who hails from Khotang, got her first glimpse of a gadi (bus) only after she completing her school education.

When she came to Kathmandu for higher studies, she believed “one should learn many skills that would definitely be useful in the future”.

Driving was never her priority but she is on a job that she is capable of doing. Apart from cruising office staff to places in her vehicle, she also trains aspiring lady drivers. “I believe driving has already been accepted as any other profession in our society,” she says.

Swati had even even thought of running a cab service from the airport exclusively run by the women. However, that has not materialised as the training being given was basically aimed at providing skill training for economic independency. “We wanted make it a decent and secured profession for women,” said Sangita Nirala, executive director, Swati.

But for a majority of women who have a driver’s licence and want to work using the lince, the choice is drive a SAFA tempo as there is no provision yet for women to join government service as drivers.

(We could not meet or talk with other drivers due to various reasons.)