In what insinuates the palpable breach in the gender barrier, the number of women securing driving licenses is on the rise in the State.
The State has reported a 33% rise in women securing DLs. There has been an increase of 33% in women drivers in the last five years in Odisha. In 2017, 25,086 women had driving licenses across the state. It increased to 33,666 in 2021. In fact, in 2019 & 2020, the number of women driving license holders was more than 36,000, an official of the State Transport Authority (STA) said on Monday.
It has now become a thing of the past when women shied away from driving. Now the students, professionals, and homemakers are now taking the driver’s seat mainly due to convenience.
While there has been a rise in the number of women taking to driving over the past few years, however, if we compare with other states, the number is not very encouraging, said Sanjay Biswal, Joint Commissioner Transport, Road Safety.
“We need to encourage more and more women to come forward and take up driving. Women gain confidence by learning to drive and are thus not dependent upon others for their daily commute, he said.
The State transport department is providing free professional driving training to women at Govt. Driving Training School (DTS), Bhubaneswar & HMV Driving Training Institute (DTI), Chhatia.
There has been an increase in the number of women trainees in both institutes over the years. From 25 women trainees in 2016-17, DTS, Bhubaneswar now has 90 women who are taking lessons to drive commercial vehicles. 60 of them belong to Capital Region Urban Transport.
DTS, Bhubaneswar was started in the year 1973-74 with a view to impart non-residential LMV Driving Training to rural youths of Odisha, free of cost (except DL fees & admission fees) to create job opportunities for the trainees trained through this Institute.
Similarly, the enrolment of women is steadily increasing at HMV DTI, Chhatia as well.“Around 60 women have been trained in the last three to four years. The institute provides livelihood and job placement support to trainee drivers. Some of them are placed with private and government agencies after successfully completing the course. There are lady trainers also present in the institute who teach driving regularly along with soft skills,” informed Sadiq Hussain Syed, Principal, HMV DTI, Chhatia.