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Delhi Hires First Female Bus Driver To Combat Worrying Rape Culture

Vankadarath Saritha says her first priority will be the safety of her female passengers

A bus company in the Indian capital of Delhi has hired its first female driver in an attempt to ensure the safety of women who use public transport.

Delhi has hired its first female bus driver [Rex]
Delhi has hired its first female bus driver [Rex]


Vankadarath Saritha, 30, is one of five sisters and first became an auto rickshaw driver to help support her family before driving a van.

With her new job, Vankadarath claims she will continue to support her family and maybe even buy herself a pair of gold earrings.

Being the first woman to drive a bus in a city of nearly 10 million people is no small feat and Delhi Transport Corporation are hoping Vankadarath’s appointment will open doors for more female bus drivers.

"Having a woman driver will help improve the image of our service," RS Minhas, a DTC official told the BBC. "We had received seven to eight applications and we hired Saritha. Now we will advertise again and hire more women drivers."

The hire comes after the horrific gang rape and death of 23-year-old Jyoti Singh Pandey on a Delhi bus in 2012. Five adult men and one minor raped Jyoti and left her with fatal wounds.

Thousands of people came out in protest after the brutal gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh on a bus in 2012 [Rex]
Thousands of people came out in protest after the brutal gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh on a bus in 2012 [Rex]


In 2014, an Uber driver in Delhi was accused of raping a female passenger. It later emerged that Shiv Kumar Yadav had been arrested on rape charges in 2011 but had been acquitted and yet he managed to pass the company’s supposedly strict security checks.

This worrying rape culture was the subject of the BBC documentary ‘India’s Daughter’, which was due to be broadcast on International Women’s Day (March 8 2015) but was banned in India.

Alas, the tone of the DTC statement says it all. With no mention whatsoever of female passenger safety, they highlight the massive PR rebrand they need to undergo in order to distance themselves from a truly disturbing rate of incidence of sexual assault that takes place on public transport in India’s cities.

Will hiring a few token female bus drivers go any way to actually making cities safer for Indian women?

[The Trouble With Uber]

[Indian Student Drags Sex Attacker To The Police By His Hair]