Delhi Airport Now Has An All-Women Cab Service. It’s Great But This Means We Don’t Even Trust Our Men To Safely Drop Us!
I am 23-years-old and at the risk of sounding completely ill-equipped and useless, I will admit to the fact that I still don’t know how to drive. It’s not like I never cared enough to learn driving, I did. But with the gruesome routine, the struggle to keep up with the work-life balance, and the scary Delhi traffic, practicing driving everyday gets next to impossible. Which is where the cabs come into the picture, but not without making us anxious and keeping us on edge the entire time we are taking one. And with the current state of affairs, and Delhi really owning the rape capital bit, you can’t really blame us for being skeptics.
However, seems like things might finally be changing and offering us alternatives that don’t just make us feel a tad bit safer, but also empowered as a fellow woman. This after the news about a new initiative of a all-women cab service has kicked off in Delhi. As the word has it, Indira Gandhi International Airport in partnership with a private company, Sakha, has launched a service by the women for the women on Delhi and we couldn’t be happier.
Kicking it off with a 20 car fleet, where female drivers have been appointed to each, all trained in self-defense, to drive women passengers to their destinations from the airport, this initiative has come across as a rather warm welcome for any woman who would be landing in Delhi. The services, that have started off on a low-key base as of now (with plans of gradually picking pace and growing in number), would be started from Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
Also Read : Clubs In Delhi Are Employing Lady Bouncers And I Just Met The Amazing Yogita Sachdeva Who Is Keeping Delhi Women Safe At Nights
Ladies! Your for women by women cab service are now at Delhi Airport. Check out our exclusive booth at Arrival Forecourt T3, opp Gate no: 6- Pillar no: 16.https://t.co/5M5DXUsknI#womenenterpreneur #womendrivers #WomenWithWheels #womenempowerment pic.twitter.com/DhXkfL2TBj
— Sakha Consulting (@SakhaConsulting) January 19, 2020
The bookings can be done either at the counter or online, right at the time women passengers lands, and extends up to drop services till Delhi-NCR region, Agra and Jaipur. The cabs are supposed to be lined up near pillar 16 outside the arrival deck of T3 and are even open to pre-bookings. And honestly, with such a smoothly laid out plan and an even more pressing intention to drive change in whatever capacity is needed and possible, we are glad to see something like this shape up for the safety of women.
During an interview, an airport official mentioned how, “This service not only provides employment opportunities for women but Sakha has also provided over a million safe rides to women and their families for over a decade now. The drivers adhere to the highest standards of reliability and integrity.” Further he also continued saying that, “To ensure safety to women flyers, DIAL has initiated the women taxi service in association with Sakha cabs, which provides safe transport solutions for women by women. It has already become quite popular among women who feel vulnerable on city roads.” In fact, few of the cars are also equipped with facilities to carry physically-challenged passengers with wheelchairs.
We do see this as a great initiative, really. But the bigger worry here is, how bad are things that we have to have women drivers that are trained in self-defense? Sure, it makes me feel safe and for that I am grateful, but how are we treating our women so badly, that we have to literally do everything ourselves? From driving to making movies, women are doing everything they want to because, well, they want to, but also because we no longer trust our men to even provide us with the basic services. A sorry state of affairs, definitely.
