Poor response from women for auto-rickshaw permits

LAST JUNE, THE STATE GOVERNMENT AMENDED THE MAHARASHTRA MOTOR VEHICLE RULES 1989 TO MAKE RICKSHAW RIDES SMOOTHER FOR WOMEN

state government’s decision to reserve 5% of the new auto rickshaw permits for women has drawn a tepid response in the city.

Officials from the Regional Transport Office (RTO) told HT that of the 1,369 permits reserved for women in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), only 301 permits had been issued so far due to the poor response.

Last June, the state government amended the Maharashtra Motor Vehicle Rules 1989 to make rickshaw rides smoother for women and reserved some permits for them. Along with other rules, the government also decided to paint these rickshaws salmon-orange instead of the conventional black and yellow, for easy identification.

The highest number of women-only auto rickshaw permits have been issued in Thane RTO jurisdiction, where 97 women received them. Following Thane, Kalyan and Navi Mumbai RTOS issued 65 and 54 women-only auto rickshaw permits, respectively.

The scheme has fared badly in Mumbai. So far, the RTOS in the city have issued only 15 permits for women from the 5% quota. Of these, 14 were issued in the eastern suburbs by the Wadala RTO, one was issued in the western suburbs by Andheri RTO. Borivli RTO, that covers the area between Goregoan and Dahisar, has not issued any permit.

RTO officials said that the separate colour-coding and the order barring males from driving these autos had led to the poor response from aspirants who would have taken permits in the names of women from the family and driven the autos themselves.

After receiving over 500 appli cations from women for auto rickshaw permits, the govern ment said that it would reserve 5% of the total permits for women so they could earn their liveli hood by driving the vehicles Another thought behind this was that these vehicles would provide a safe ride to women.

“Earlier, several women had applied for auto rickshaw per mits, but when the government brought the colour scheme and made it clear that only women could drive those, applications started dropping,” said a senior RTO official. The transport department’s lottery for permits in January 2016 had about 42,000 of them, of which 431 were won by women drivers. RTO sources said that they have issued around 50 permits to women in Mumbai but several had not yet brought their vehicles on roads.