Strees @ steering wheels-1
Yogita Raghuvanshi, thoda had jao!
More ladies join the truck cabin as solo drivers or co-pilots with their spouses.
Don’t believe it?
They are not just a few, but a significant and growing presence on the Indian highways, surpassing expectations in their numbers and impact.
Though there were only a handful of women truck drivers in the pre-Yogita Raghuvanshi era, when the trucking industry was predominantly male-dominated, she caught the media’s attention as her truck entered the Vashi yard in Navi Mumbai several summers ago.
Her educational background and riveting backstory (widowed with two children and a desire to chart her independent path away from her in-laws’ gaze) led the Mahindra Group to gift her a mint-fresh Blazo and turned her into a role model or brand ambassador in the male-dominated trucking segment.
Yogita became the Indian trucking star with invitations to accept honours from the transport fraternity. Her articulation and eloquence gave a chance to make the mandarins of the newly-created Logistics department in the industry and commerce ministry squirm in their pants and sarees with herfrank and brutal take on the neglect of the trucking segment, which often includes issues such as lack of safety measures, long working hours, and social stigma, in open forums.
Enough of YR.
It is debatable whether she enticed more women into trucking. Yet, it is evident that the media frequently captures pant or salwar-kameez or saree-clad highway heroines trundling the motorised iron horses on the arteries of India, the major highways and roads that form the lifeline of the country’s transportation system.
Hang on.
On a recent April Friday afternoon, Anil Pandeyji of MD Movers of Tornagallu, Hospet, Karnataka, pinged me and advised me to check my WhatsApp.
I did, and this is what I saw with a caption:
Naari shakti hamare bhi kshetra me….
Mahila Sasakthikaran se hamara desh aur bi samruddhi saali banega
What is this Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh-born long-haul truck driver saying?
Women have entered the trucking vertical. Their entry will make India more prosperous.
Yes, it is a welcome message from him from the Tata plant in Viramgam, Gujarat.
He did not stop with the message but shared a few photos.
Eager to see what he sent?
Hang on.
(To continue)
