Women with electric rickshaws combat Delhi’s toxic air – and its sexism
Monika Devi is thrilled to be driving her autorickshaw. The 35-year-old has two reasons to be particularly proud as she winds her way through New Delhi’s insanely congested streets.
She is one of the first women to be driving one of the three-wheeled taxis that swarm the roads of the Indian capital. And she is driving one of Delhi’s first e-rickshaws – part of the city’s drive to tackle its notoriously filthy air.
“This city is unsafe for women, and until now they had no choice but to travel in an autorickshaw driven by a man, which can be scary at night,” she said. “Plus, I hate the pollution and feel happy that I’m doing my bit by driving an electric rickshaw which isn’t spewing out toxic fumes.”
While some Indian cities such as Pune and Mumbai have female autorickshaw drivers (though only a handful), for some reason public transport in New Delhi remains an exclusively male affair.
Indian women fly planes, sit in boardrooms and send rockets into space, but do not drive rickshaws or buses in Delhi. Sunita Choudhary became the city’s first female autorickshaw driver 18 years ago, but since then no one else has taken up the challenge.
This sort of low-level job appeals only to women from lower-income families, yet the conservative culture of this social stratum firmly resists the idea of women being out on the streets and interacting with men.
“My father drives an autorickshaw, but he initially opposed me,” Devi said. “He thought male passengers would flirt with me or harass me. I had to fight him on this. I am not scared at all of being on the roads. If women are scared, how will we make progress?”
Her e-rickshaw was subsidised by the Delhi state government, which has launched a fleet of 3,500 e-rickshaws – painted a sickly
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