The Hindu Business Line : Woman with drive

J. K. Training School’, says a board perched at a tiny entrance on Gorcha Road in South Kolkata. J.K. stands for Jasbir Kaur, 48, who everybody in the locality seems to know fondly. But beneath the rather motherly demeanour lay nerves of steel. Jasbir Kaur is the first woman taxi driver of Kolkata and, perhaps, of the country. She now teaches young women to take to the wheel.

“I wish that women will soon drive taxis in Kolkata like I did until some years ago. There are female engineers, female doctors; women are in most professions where only men once worked. So, why can’t they drive taxis?” she asks.

Entry by accident

However, Jasbir admits that she entered the profession by accident. Married young, she was a mother of two young boys when a debilitating disease afflicted her husband. Bedridden, he lost his job. While the couple continued to retain the hired drivers for their taxis, relying completely on them was a challenge. The men would cheat on the earnings or draw up huge repair bills. “Life looked bleak. Money was constantly in short supply... there were medicines to be bought, school fees to be paid... So, one day, utterly desolate, I decided I’d drive the taxi myself.” That was in 1985. Today, her sons have grown up — one is a marine engineer and the other a student of hotel management. However, she still has to take her ailing husband to doctors and nursing homes for treatment. Jasbir admits that it was unusual for a young woman in her 20s to drive a cab, particularly at night, but says that she never had problems. “There was never an instance of anyone insulting or physically threatening me.

Some adventures

Thanks to the people of Kolkata, who gave me respect.” Thanks also to her no-nonsense attitude and self-confidence: “You must have guts to get along in life,” she says. One evening while waiting at Sealdah station for passengers, four men got into her cab. She realised they were drinking, but before she could protest, they had already seated themselves. The group’s leader was sitting in the front seat but in the dark failed to realise that a woman was behind the wheel. He spoke roughly with her. “I drove a few yards and then applied the brakes suddenly. The man was about to swear when his cronies sitting at the back gestured to him that I was a woman. I saw that in the rear view mirror. Once he realised this, he literally touched my feet. Calling me didi, he begged for forgiveness and offered to get down. I replied, ‘Now that you’ve apologised, it’s all right. Tell me where you want to go’”.

Another time, Jasbir was waiting at Bidhan Sarani (the erstwhile College Street) when a young boy hailed the cab. He asked her to wait before disappearing into a house. After some time, he hurriedly returned requesting her to wait for a few more minutes. “I was getting impatient and was about to leave when I saw a woman in her 80s, followed by a posse of women of the household, moving towards me. They didn’t seem like they wanted to go anywhere. Then, the old lady came towards me — she wanted to see the lady taxi driver her grandson had told her about. She hugged me saying, ‘If I were your age, I would have driven a taxi, too!”

A ‘Sherni’

Despite enthusiasm and eagerness to increase her tribe, Jasbir is still a lone runner in Kolkata. But she is gradually cruising towards her dream. In fact, it was another interesting incident that resulted in her setting up a driving institute for women. She was once chased by the city’s police commissioner, who followed her taxi for a long time. He was hot on her trail before she managed to give him a slip. Horrified and dumbfounded over why the police were after her, she told the constable, who turned up at her door the next morning after tracking down her registration number, that the person he was after was not available. “I was worried. I couldn’t understand why the police were looking for me,” she recalls. Finally she mustered up the courage to go and meet the commissioner. “To my surprise, he congratulated me for this bold step, called me a sherni and promised me help, if I was ever in need of it,” she recalls.

It was due to his guidance that Jasbir could set up the motor training school. “Nothing great, if you consider the big projects that people manage. But I am happy. My father, who hailed from Bhatinda, Punjab, wanted me to become a captain — he had worked for the Shipping Corporation of India and treated me like a son. But fate decided otherwise. At least I am piloting a vehicle through the streets now,” she says, with a twinkle in her eye.

As a trainer, Jasbir encourages women to opt for this profession where one can save around Rs 500 daily. “I assure you that if any woman comes forward, I will take the responsibility of finding her a job.” She feels that female drivers would instil confidence in the female BPO staff and offices with graveyard shifts.

For this woman, where there’s a wheel, there’s a way. She has sworn to keep going until she finds a capable woman to succeed her. Until then, Jasbir Singh will continue to start her day at six sharp every morning and teach other women how to steer through life.

Women’s Feature Service

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