Pink Van night taxi service in Shimla for needy women set for launch
Being a single mother, who can relate to safety concerns of girls and women who have to travel late in the night, a woman Bimla Thakur, running an NGO named 'The Society for Connecting Lives', has decided to offer Pink Van’ night taxi services to women in the state capital here.
The taxi service will be free of cost for needy women during the night within the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation, Shimla. What makes the taxi service special is that it will have a woman driver. However, the taxi service will only be provided to one woman at a time during the night. The woman intending to avail the taxi service should also be registered with the NGO and will also be required to provide a valid ID.
Speaking about the thought that led her to start the taxi services for needy women in the town, Bimla said that she herself is a single mother and she understands the ordeal of needy women venturing out at odd hours. “Many times I noticed that women had to travel during the night and they faced problems due to lack of reliable transport facilities. The idea was to help needy women who need to travel and are not able to find taxis especially during the night,” she said. The NGO plans to expand the number of taxis in the future but only after seeing the response of the women for the taxi service, she added.
The NGO also plans to operate the same taxi services during the day time. However, during the day women will be charged nominal amount of money for availing the services. This will also help in generating income for the NGO with which it will be able to pay the woman driver her salary as well as to maintain the taxi.
‘The taxi will be pink in colour as it is associated with women. The taxi will also have the contact number of the organisation so that needy women can easily access the services. It will also have ‘Safe Drive with Connecting Lives’ painted on it,” she said. The Pink Taxi service will be launched by the end of this month or in early April.
Registered in August 2017, the NGO aims to help needy women mainly single mothers, widowed women, unmarried women, etc. The NGO also provides financial assistance, ration, etc, to needy women.
To begin with the NGO has started the taxi service in a privately hired vehicle till they are in a position to purchase their own vehicle, which will offer ‘Pink Van’ services.
