Himachal: Workshop for commercial women drivers organised in Shimla

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], January 24 : The transport department of the Himachal Pradesh government on Wednesday organised a one-day workshop and experience-sharing workshop for women drivers.
Over 40 commercial vehicle drivers, truck drivers, bus drivers, taxi drivers and private vehicle drivers participated in the workshop and shared their experiences.
State Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said that this is the first of its kind workshop for women drivers. He said that women are becoming role models for women in commercial driving in the state.
"This workshop is a new beginning; I would like to congratulate the director of transport for the department for this Unique Effort. We have honoured professional and commercial truck, taxi and other women drivers. We have learnt from them about their problems and issues. We have decided that women would be given priority in issuing driving licenses to the women in the state."
"So far we have lost 7500 people till date in the state due to road accidents and over 30000 people have got injured. We are trying to reach every section of the society for road safety. This workshop of women is also part of the road safety campaign," he said.
Agnihotri asserted that the number of women drivers in the state will increase in the near future.
"We have honoured the women here today, we want to salute the women who are driving the commercial vehicles that are facing troubles. We are also trying to review the policies at the government level. We have drivers and conductors in business, today we have three participants here who are working as Conductors. These women have adopted this as a profession. We have invited 40 women here today so in the near future you will see a large number of women on the road driving vehicles," Agnihotri added.
Anupam Kashyap, the director of transport of the state government said that there are over one Lakh twenty-five to thousand women drivers registered in the state. He said that the experiences of the women would be added to the syllabus of school books.
"It is a proud moment for us that the participation of women in the transport sector is increasing each day. The women are more sensitive and helpful during road accidents. We have women coming up for driving commercial vehicles like trucks, Taxis, Auto and other vehicles. We wanted to bring more women forward and we have organized this workshop for women and issued guidelines based on their feedback to the concerned agencies. We had issued an advertisement about this workshop and women participated in it. It includes women in police and other departments and they are becoming a moral support to other women to come forward.
"We had invited 40 women and after documenting it we shall take the opinion for classes in 11th and 12th standard on road safety," said Kashyap.
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Meanwhile, Meenakshi Negi, a taxi driver, said, "I have been driving a taxi in Shimla for the past six years. We are hopeful that more will come shortly. People have started accepting women in this profession as we can become self-dependent and it is a good source of income. I have felt a change in the recent past as a woman taxi driver. This workshop is successful. People feel that women can be safer drivers."
Seema Thakur, another bus driver, said that for road safety women are more sensitive. She said that she feels proud to be a part of the road safety campaign.
"I am the first woman bus driver in HRTC, this programme on road safety is important and we can learn and apart from this, I am happy to learn from the experiences of women drivers. I have been driving in HRTC for the past seven years and I am happy that my dream to drive a Volvo bus has come true; I am driving Volvo buses in hills in Delhi and other parts of India. I feel proud to be part of this campaign," said Thakur.