Womens empowerment in Uttarakhand

The Uttarakhand Transport Corporation (UTC) has for the first time in its 14-year history, decided to hire 127 women to work as conductors for its fleet of over 1,150 buses. Since its formation in 2003, The UTC had never directly recruited women, although it had appointed 42 women as conductors on compassionate grounds. Deepak Jain, General Manager (GM) Operations, UTC, said that for the first time, 127 posts of conductors have been reserved for women. They would be serving on buses plying on different routes within and outside the state. Recently, the UTC sought applications for 424 conductor’s posts of which 30% of the total posts, which is 127 is reserved only for women. Of the total posts reserved for women, 80 are open for general category, 24 for scheduled caste, five for scheduled tribe and 18 for other backward class (OBC). The secretary of roadways Karamchari Joint Council, Ram Dutt Raturi welcomed the decision and appreciated the government’s decision to hire women conductors for the first time. He said that this initiative of the government will not only help to provide women with the opportunity of becoming financially independent but will also empower them.