“Soon after completing my 10th standard, I got married. It instantly shattered my dreams of pursuing higher education and acquiring a good job.

Five years ago, I started working as an auto driver to support my son’s graduation. I wanted to help my husband with this cause. Together we made sure at least he could try and chase his dreams. Driving auto came as blessing for a lot of reasons. It helped me overcome the pain of losing my daughter to kidney failure.

What started as a job to support my son, also went on give me some sense of freedom and strength. I became financially independent like I always dreamt.

Well, there is a flip side to everything in our life. While I have a lot of customers praise me for my bold career choice, I have a few male auto drivers harass me at times. Sometimes, they even pass indecent comments and try to cross their line. It is disturbing to say the least. A few customers too choose male drivers over me. You know why! The age old sexist mentality.

Once when a male auto driver used abusive and unparliamentary language with me, I approached the Police to lodge a complaint. Out approach was in vain. The Police didn’t take me seriously.

Not just the Police or the Government, sometimes a few chauvinistic customers too don’t take us seriously. Our journey to success is not easy. It is a struggle to keep up our business with harassment and hurdles our way. I try! I try every single day to fight hard for my rights. I hope the world is easy for us too just like it is for men!”