MSRTC To Appoint 22 Women Bus Drivers After 3 Years Long Wait

In a first, Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) is finally up to recruiting women drivers in the public transport sector. After a three-year-long wait MSRTC sent pre-recruitment training letters to 22 women drivers on the occasion of Dussehra, making way for more women in the public transport services.

Additionally, 27 men candidates also received their pre-recruitment training letters. All of them were offer letters since pandemic, training letters have now brought relief to applicants.

203 women appeared for the written examination. Among them, 142 women were shortlisted for the year-long heavy vehicle driver training program in 2019. But they did not receive recruitment letters owing to the pandemic.

Now the letters are issued, selected candidates will attend an 80-day training program, a preliminary requisite before joining driving duties.

2019 efforts now became a success after 3 years. But this is not the only attempt of MSRTC. MSRTC failed a similar exercise in 2017. An MSRTC official in a report claimed that rules did not allow women drivers without experience to be recruited, only hired conductors in 2017. Earlier, three years of experience for drivers in driving heavy vehicles was the mandatory rule. Later, in 2019 this term was discarded, and replaced with one-year training for fresh recruits.

MSRTC Appoints Women Bus Drivers

This rule helped women bring in the process and appointments to the bus driver position. After the end of this process, 22 women are posted in various parts of the state

Currently, MSRTC has 36,000 male drivers and plans to recruit 10,000 women drivers. MSRTC managing director Shekhar Channe pointed out that we aim to recruit 10,000 women drivers across the state to achieve gender neutrality. We shall ensure to provide recruitment letters to others at the earliest. For now, MSRTC has 4,500 women conductors. Nonetheless, in 2019, 1431 men were recruited as part of the same recruitment process. MSRTC's move seems promising but slow. The plans must be place executed rigorously to achieve gender equality goals, when it comes to hiring in public transport.

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