Jammu: Seema Devi from Jammu's Nagrota area has become the first female e-rickshaw driver from Jammu and Kashmir. The woman in her early 40s was virtually unknown till she resolved to earn a living for herself and find a way to support her husband. Seema said the move to chart a source of living for herself stemmed from the urge to help her husband financially.
Seema has a son (15) and two daughters aged 14 and 11. While talking with ETV Bharat, Seema said that given the inflation, she decided to support her husband in providing better education and living for their children.
Seema said she explored many avenues to earn a living for herself till her husband learned that e-rickshaws were available for purchase at subsidised rates. Before long, the couple bought a three-wheeler on EMI and Seema's husband took it upon himself to teach her to drive the vehicle.
Also read: Jammu and Kashmir gets its first woman bus driver
Having taken the driving lessons in earnest from her spouse, Seema is now not only a professional e-rickshaw driver ferrying passengers to their desired destinations in Nagrota but is also making good money out of it. However, she conceded that the journey to becoming the first woman e-rickshaw driver wasn't rosy as she had to overcome certain inhibitions and the nervousness of having passersby and commuters stare at her in amusement.
"I drive an e-rickshaw. My family members had to listen to a lot of taunts for my choice of profession but my husband has always stood by me," she said. Seema, who feels no job is small, doesn’t subscribe to the thought of limiting women to only a few jobs.
“Women today drive trains, fly airplanes, so why can’t I drive an e-rickshaw,” she said, adding, “I was in 9th grade when my parents got me married. I was fond of reading, but I couldn’t pursue my studies. Now I want to give my daughters higher education.”
On December 2020, a woman named Pooja Devi from Kathua had become the first woman from Jammu and Kashmir to drive a bus and a truck. Now Seema has added another feather to the list of women breaking the glass ceiling in the region.
