Pink autos’ which started exclusively for women keeping safety in mind in the state capital around two months ago is gaining popularity among the female residents. Now the young girls and elderly women prefer travelling in these autos and are appreciating this latest transportation mode.
School girls and housewives are often noticed travelling in these autos. “We had to face eve teasing or sexual harassment in autos where men were seated beside us. This is a good initiative for providing us security,” Rakhi Sahu, a resident of Dhurwa said who often hires pink auto from Doranda to Main Road.
Dipti Sikha Guha, a senior citizen working in a security agency uploaded a photo on her Facebook timeline with a pink auto driver and her co-passengers while she was crossing Doranda in this auto. Asked about the experience, she said, “For the first time I felt women are empowered in our hometown. Travelling in pink autos is now a daily routine.”
Minakshi Shastri, a teacher in DAV Public School at Gaya who hails from Ranchi visited this city after a year. Noticing this pink auto, she was pleased and wrote on her Facebook status, “Pink autos for women on the roads of Ranchi. I am feeling safe.” Her status was immediately followed by many likes and comments.
Similar to Minakshi, customer relationship manager Konica Das who visited her hometown after six months during the festival of Holi from Patna was impressed to see pink autos. Sharing her opinion with her younger sisters, she said, “You all need not worry of crime incidents while travelling. There are women driving autos only for our gender.”
Significantly, due to these feedbacks, district authorities have planned to extend the duration of pink autos on the roads till 8pm. “As of now, we are driving from 7am to 7pm but the responses of our passengers has encouraged us. We have decided to drive till 8pm in the coming days,” added Sunita.
Presently, six pink autos are running within the city. Two autos are running from Albert Ekka Chowk to Doranda, two autos run on reserve basis from Ranchi Railway station and the last two autos are running from Argora Chowk to Big Bazaar.
The female drivers of these autos on the other hand are happy with this friendly response. “Earlier, we had to wait long for passengers. Also, we had to convince women to sit in our autos. Male drivers would pass lewd comments on us. But now the scenario has totally changed. We do not have to wait for more than a minute at the stoppages. Passengers themselves come and sit in our autos,” Sunita, a driver in one of the auto.