Depots and workshops of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) may be labour intensive work places, but that has not deterred women from signing up as technical staff. Along with their male colleagues, they are responsible for maintenance and electrical work, repairing engines and working on the exterior of the bus.

Deepa Dinesh, who works at the premier AC bus depot of KSRTC at Shantinagar is in charge of inspecting vehicles, fixing technical issues raised by drivers and clearing the vehicles to ply on roads.

“When I joined the corporation 18 years ago, I had my doubts about surviving in this work environment. But the support I received from my colleagues helped me to stay in the profession for all these years.” Today, she oversees maintenance of 32 AC buses, including the high-end Club Class buses. “After attending to technical issues raised by drivers, I sometimes drive the buses inside the depot to check whether problems have been rectified,” she added.

Her colleague, Chaitra, says there is no discrimination in the work done by male and female employees, except when it comes to heavy lifting. Usually, maintenance work of an AC bus is done every 30,000 km. “There are women technical staff who have also got expertise in exterior work [including paint jobs], which gives brand value for the buses,” she added.

KSRTC operates more than 8,700 buses across Karnataka. It has been recruiting women for technical support work since 1999. There is, however, room for more women as the ratio is skewed towards male employees. Currently, the corporation has 5,068 technical staff of which 826 are women.

A similar trend is seen among BMTC’s technical staff. At its Indiranagar depot for instance, of the 80 technical staff, 24 are women.

“I was the first woman technical staff to join this depot 21 years ago,” said Rangamma. “Over the years, the number of women joining this profession has been on the rise. We don’t just do repair work, but also contribute to maintaining the interior of the bus,” she said.

The BMTC has 338 women technical staff out of which 80 are working in central workshops.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Special Correspondent / March 07th, 2019