Females-only transport spurs more Indian women to join workforce

Women-centred cab and bus services help address access and safety concerns

- Rohini Mohan

Driving out of Bengaluru's international airport with her passenger on a late January evening, Ms Kausar Rabiya, 38, pulled the seatbelt over her pink sweatshirt and turned the radio down to "a chatting-friendly volume".

"It's rare to see a woman driver, so passengers always strike up a conversation," said Ms Rabiya, who raises four children by day and drives a taxi at night.

She works for GoPink Cabs, a service with pink-and-white taxis and female drivers that has partnered with the Bengaluru airport to ferry female commuters in the wee hours. Many solo travellers are flying in for, or returning from, work.

Three years into seeing women's faces light up on seeing her at the wheel, Ms Rabiya had an epiphany: Her job had a multiplier effect on women in the workforce.

"It feels good that I've helped hundreds of other women go to work and get back home safely," she said.

As it becomes clear that India's economic aspirations cannot come to fruition without more women in the workforce, women-driven cabs.

for female passengers only are among the fresh efforts to get them to take up jobs.

The work participation rate of women in India is among the world's lowest. The latest official data shows that in the last quarter of 2023, less than a quarter of urban women in India over 15 years old were in the workforce, compared with 73.8 per cent of men.

In comparison, 63 per cent of women in Singapore, 61 per cent in China, 59 per cent in Thailand, and a third in Sri Lanka did paid work.