The Hindu Business Line : `May I help you?'

Aaina Batra, 20, is excited about being one of the 20 new cabbies recruited under the Ministry of Tourism's freshly minted `Project Priyadarshini' scheme. "Becoming a cabbie wasn't an easy decision to make," says this Delhi University graduate as she sidles in and out of a gleaming cab to pose for shutterbugs at a press meet in Delhi. "It's a challenging profession. But women are flying planes, saving lives and fighting as soldiers. So why can't they be cabbies?"

It's a sentiment that is endorsed by Batra's counterpart Shweta Neb, who is being coached as a tourist guide by Ashok Tours & Travels, an arm of India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC). "Delhi isn't a safe city, especially for single women tourists," says Shweta. "A woman guide will go a long way in making women feel secure." (The case of an Australian traveller Emily Griggs, who was raped and murdered by two cab drivers on March 17, 2004, in the national capital is still fresh in the public mind.)

In a first of sorts, Project Priyadarshini — christened after erstwhile Prime Minister Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi and launched by Tourism Minister Renuka Chowdhury on December 9 (Women's Empowerment Day) — aims to employ women in non-stereotypical areas in the Indian travel sector. The pan-India initiative — whose pilot project was launched in Delhi — hopes to capitalise on the tourism boom in the country.

"The project will focus on capacity building in the tourism sector under which women will be trained through various government institutes," explains Tourism Secretary A.K. Mishra.

The training outfits will include the Institute of Hotel Management Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management, Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering, and a network of India Tourism offices in India. The training will cover the hotel and travel trade sector, airlines, tourist guides, small restaurants, Immigration and Customs, Police and other blue-collar areas. It will also employ housewives of service officers as tourist-cum-shopping guides for high-end foreign tourists.

The women cabbies, for instance, will be trained for three months in judo, karate, foreign languages, etiquette and tourist handling. They will also get hands-on training in auto repair and have access to easy loans and subsidies to buy taxis. The first batch of women taxi drivers will begin work early 2006. Apart from manning taxis, the women are trained to work as tourist guides, interfaces at railway offices, hotels, airports, restaurants, information and facilitation kiosks, and cafeterias.

"The whole idea behind Project Priyadarshini," explains the Tourism Minister from the velvety lawns of her residence at Delhi's Lodhi Estate, "is to address the key issue of gender bias in our society. The gender ratio in India is getting more skewed by the day. In many pockets of states like Rajasthan and Punjab, for instance, for every 1,000 men, there are only 800 women. If this isn't alarming, what is? We shout from the rooftops about caring for the girl child. But in reality women in our society are perceived as a `burden'. So the ministry is doing its bit by economically and psychologically empowering them through this scheme."

The project's timing is certainly good, considering the last two years have seen tourism emerge as one of the major growth sectors of the Indian economy. Forex earnings from tourism rose from Rs 16,429 crore in 2004 to Rs 21,828 crore in December 2005. Simultaneously there has been a 17.3 per cent surge in foreign tourist arrivals, the highest over the last decade, for the same period. The ministry's capacity building funds have also increased with the central tourism budget being upped from Rs 350 crore in 2004 to Rs 800 crore in 2005. "A part of this additional funding will be funnelled into training women to absorb them in greater numbers in the tourism sector," adds Chowdhury.

As with her other initiatives — Monsoon Tourism, Buddhist Tourism, Eco Tourism, Medical and Rural Tourism — ever since she took over the tourism mantle in May 2004, a well-oiled PR machinery has been set in motion for Project Priyadarshini too. A worldwide promotion has been launched through India Tourist Offices in India and overseas along with the ministry's sensitisation programme — `Atithi Devo Bhavah' or Guest is God — which was launched a year ago at a cost of Rs 5 crore.

So along with endowing Indian tourism with a feel-good factor — not to mention a politically correct nuance — the ministry hopes the effort will also bring about a mindset change with regard to women's potential in this sector. "Ultimately, it's all about breaking barriers and changing mindsets so that women's capabilities too can be tapped for the benefit of the tourism sector," says I. Mazumdar, General Manager, ITDC (India Tourism Development Corporation) whose training arm — Ashok Tours & Travels — has employed nine women cabbies.

In a synchronous move, the Ministry of Urban Development has launched the `Sehri Rojgar Yojna' for the self-employment of women in urban areas. This project will financially assist women in establishing small and medium enterprises like art-cum-souvenir shops, restaurants, cafeterias, and information and facilitation kiosks under the Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation scheme.

Whatever may be Project Priyadarshini's long-term spin-offs, given its ambition — and scale — the scheme certainly behoves well for women's employability in India, a country where the fairer sex makes up for an abysmal percentage of the total organised workforce. In fact, according to a recently published report by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), women constitute a dismal six per cent of the total workforce in large Indian organisations whereas their employment in medium-sized companies is only a tad better at 18 per cent. Even in the rural workforce, the balance is skewed — out of the 310 million workers, only 111 million are women.

The tourism sector — which has already demonstrated its potential for carving out jobs and creating income-generating activities for women to benefit local communities in destination areas — might help improve this ratio. It can simultaneously provide various entry points for women's employment in small and medium-scale activities in synergy with other stakeholders — governments and intergovernmental bodies, local government, industry, local communities, NGOs and community-based tourism initiatives.

"The area of tourism is perfect to stress the integrated approach to environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainable development," says K.L. Das, Regional Director, Delhi, Ministry of Tourism. "Integrating gender perspectives into tourism is particularly important as the tourism industry is one major employer of women and offers various opportunities for independent income-generating activities for them." According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), 46 per cent of the workforce in the tourism sector comprises women. Amongst countries where tourism is a more mature industry, women account for up to 50 per cent of the workforce.

More female participation in the future will be fuelled by the growth in the industry. For instance, by 2007, according to Tourism Ministry estimates, direct and indirect employment from tourism in India will scale up to 66 million from the current 41 million.

The tourism multiplier for every Rs 1 million invested in this sector creates 47 jobs. This is four times the number of jobs — 12 on an average — created for an equivalent investment in other sectors. This holds out special possibilities for the relatively disadvantaged segments of society like unemployed youth, women and the physically challenged.

"Ultimately," sums up Chowdhury, "it's all about empowerment. Empowering the disadvantaged so that they can become productive citizens of the global economy. And there's no doubt that in this aspect, Indian women are second to none!"

Picture by Kamal Narang