Government seems to be taking big steps towards in creating more opportunities to women in the country. Cab services such as Ola and Uber have been asked to train one lakh commercial drivers every year, with majority of them being woman.
The road transport and highway ministry have asked Uber to set up training institutes to curb the shortage of drivers in towns.
“Operations of Uber have grown massively in the country. There’s a huge shortfall in supply for commercial drivers. We want these technology-based app companies to train one lakh drivers a year,” a senior transport ministry official told ET.
“We have already told Uber to train drivers. Ola executives are meeting us shortly. We want them to commit to training drivers every year as they will need them too because of growing demand and also because they have their own fleet growing,” the official added.
The government will do its bit by cutting down the time frame for obtaining a commercial driving licence to three months, from the present one year. It will also develop curriculum for these institutes to make it easier for drivers to secure the commercial license.
Government insists that the majority of the trainees should be women. Given that there have been several cases of sexual assaults reported against cab drivers, perhaps a female drivers would offer more comfort for passengers.
