Forty-year-old pourakarmika, Renuka Guddappa, has not stepped on to a bicycle or a two-wheeler so far. She is now learning to ride the new e-autorikshaw of Mangaluru City Corporation, which has planned to allow women pourakarmikas use this vehicle for door-to-door waste collection.
“I am learning since last one month. Yet to get used to techniques of operating this new vehicle,” said Ms. Guddappa, a mother of two children. “As I have not stepped on bicycle or any other two-wheeler in my life, there is still nervousness in operating this vehicle independently,” she said. Ms. Guddappa is taking a break from the work of removing roadside grass and attending training session.
Similar is the tale of grass cutters Rekha Isarnal and Asha Walikar, who have been attending training sessions that are regularly being conducted at Karavali Utsav ground and in Kavoor and Surathkal under supervision of MCC health inspectors B.K. Arun Kumar, Kiran Giridhar, Sanjay and Ashwini.
As many as 15 women pourakarmika are undergoing e-autorickshaw driving training. Door-to-Door waste collection supervisors Ajith, Litesh, Subash and Satish are giving the training. In another 30 days these women are likely to start collecting garbage using e-autorickshaw.
Under Swachh Bharath Mission, MCC has been given 24 e-autorickshaws, 107 hydraulic jeep tippers, 30 tipper truck and, 16 compactors for domestic waste collection.
MCC Commissioner C.L. Anand said recently he read report about women operating autorickshaw in the city. “This inspired me to train select women pourakarmikas, who are in big number, in operating the e-autorickhaw. Through this we want to empower these women and help them raise their dignity,” Mr. Anand said. The MCC intends to train make more women pourakarmikas in operation of e-autorickshaws, he said.
Mr. Kumar said these women will be operating the autorickshaws in narrow roads of the city where jeep tippers cannot go. Initially two women will be these vehicles. As they get used to it, these women will be allowed to operate independently. These women already have Leaners Licence and driving licence will be taken before they start garbage collection, he said.
Happy over the initiative of MCC, pourakarmika Dyamavva said women are surging ahead in many fields. Women are operating garbage collection vehicles in some villages of Dakshina Kannada. “It is challenge to use this vehicle to collect waste in the undulating terrain of city. We hope to overcome it,” Ms. Dyamavva said.
