Maharashtra Hires 700 Women Bus Drivers
The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) for the first time will hire women drivers. The women drivers will be trained to drive the heavy vehicles.
For the First time Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation which is the MSRTC will hire women to drive their state transport buses. Out of 809 applicants, the MSRTC has shortlisted 743 applicants. These applicants were from Kalyan, Bhiwandi, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, Aurangabad and other cities. MSRTC has 4,500 women conductors, they do not have women bus drivers.
A senior official at MSRTC said that they will soon finalize the selection of the drivers. The applicants are within the age of 21-30 years. All of them are at least class 10 passouts. Some of them are even graduates.
They all have experience driving heavy vehicles. Out of the total 8,022 posts in total for drivers 30% seats are reserved for women.
Diwakar Raote, transport minister said that many changes have been made to hire women bus drivers. In the past MSRTC failed to hire women drivers, because of various recruitment parameters.Since then they have reduced the minimum height requirement from 160 cm to 153 cm. They have also reduced the experience required from 3 years to 1 year.
He said that MSRTC is going through their documents and checking their certificates. They will also check their height and other medical requirements before they hand out the appointment letters.After selection, the women will be posted in depots close to their homes so they can stay close to their families. They will be trained for 1 year to handle. They will be trained in road safety, driving heavy vehicles, and also taught various technical issues so they can handle any situation.
MSRTC is even training 20 tribal women to become drivers. The post of the driver category has been renamed. It is now driver-cum-conductor. The women will be asked to work in shifts depending on the requirement of the depot.
