Behind every successful woman is a tribe of other women who have her back' — one is inclined to agree with this in the wake of an increase in female participation in the workforce, across industries. This breaking of the glass barriers becomes even more pronounced when groups of women come together to form an organisation. And Bengaluru, the startup capital of India, is seeing quite a few women starting off on their own with enterprises that are truly the embodiments of 'women power'.
One of these is 'Go Pink Premium Cabs', an initiative started by cousins Sunila Suresh, Anuradha Udayshankar and Kalyani Krishna. It is the country's first cab service operated exclusively by women for women. "It was Anuradha's concept, born as a response to horrific incidents like the Nirbhaya case," explains Sunila. "We all liked the concept and joined hands with her, something that was fully supported by our husbands and families."
But they lacked this kind of encouragement from outside. "People would always tell us that this is not a women's job and we will not be able to keep it up," elaborates Sunila. "But though there were challenges, we were firm about our decision to take this forward and that is something that we have managed to do quite well."
The challenges that the team faced ranged from being greenhorns in the field of providing transport, lack of mentors and lack of stability of their own employees. "Finding interested women for this service was the biggest challenge. Though many signed up, quite a few of them quit within two to three months as they couldn't handle the pressure. Many also left because they had domestic responsibilities and couldn't manage everything together," she adds.
Archana Singh, founder of 'Seventh Sin', Asia's first all-women food truck, agrees with this statement and says that families can be the biggest champions or harshest critics of working women. "The women who work in my truck are from the underprivileged sections of society and this venture helps them be financially independent and increases their self-confidence. The only problems I have faced are from the families of these ladies who say that they don't want them to work after dark or work at all as they have to be home to look after the children and take care of the households."
But the situation, though tough, is not impossible as is evident from some of the reactions these ladies have faced in the line of their work. Sunija Rishi, founder of 'Nevanta', an all-women video web magazine, says "Our focus was on women in the age group of 18-34 years in tier I and tier II cities and we made short videos on fashion and lifestyle for their benefits. In a society where video journalism is still primarily male dominated, our all-women team came as a pleasant surprise to many. We have covered many events and shows and everyone — designers, models, organisers — were delighted with the idea of a 'girls only' team. Safety is always a concern though but barring the odd incident or two, it has been good."
"We have had a few negative incidents too," says Sunila. "Though our service is only for families, single women and senior citizens, men call and try to make bookings. There was a time when a man booked one of our cabs, saying that he had to go pick up his family from a mall. On the way, he tried to borrow money from the lady driver, saying that he had forgotten his wallet. When they reached the mall, he went inside the place and then didn't come out. He didn't pick up his phone also. It served as a learning experience for us and we realised what the market is like."
"And then there are people who call up from far away places, sometimes even abroad, requesting us to take their aged parents to hospitals or other such places. The trust they place is us, whom they have never met, is one of the things that keeps us going," she adds, smiling.
![]( "Fassionate: (From left) Archana, Deepa, Usha, Hema, Natasha and Praveena.")
Behind every successful woman is a tribe of other women who have her back’ — one is inclined to agree with this in the wake of an increase in female participation in the workforce, across industries. This breaking of the glass barriers becomes even more pronounced when groups of women come together to form an organisation. And Bengaluru, the startup capital of India, is seeing quite a few women starting off on their own with enterprises that are truly the embodiments of 'women power’.
One of these is 'Go Pink Premium Cabs’, an initiative started by cousins Sunila Suresh, Anuradha Udayshankar and Kalyani Krishna. It is the country’s first cab service operated exclusively by women for women. "It was Anuradha’s concept, born as a response to horrific incidents like the Nirbhaya case,” explains Sunila. "We all liked the concept and joined hands with her, something that was fully supported by our husbands and families.”
But they lacked this kind of encouragement from outside. "People would always tell us that this is not a women’s job and we will not be able to keep it up,” elaborates Sunila. "But though there were challenges, we were firm about our decision to take this forward and that is something that we have managed to do quite well.”
The challenges that the team faced ranged from being greenhorns in the field of providing transport, lack of mentors and lack of stability of their own employees. "Finding interested women for this service was the biggest challenge. Though many signed up, quite a few of them quit within two to three months as they couldn’t handle the pressure. Many also left because they had domestic responsibilities and couldn’t manage everything together,” she adds.
Archana Singh, founder of 'Seventh Sin’, Asia’s first all-women food truck, agrees with this statement and says that families can be the biggest champions or harshest critics of working women. "The women who work in my truck are from the underprivileged sections of society and this venture helps them be financially independent and increases their self-confidence. The only problems I have faced are from the families of these ladies who say that they don’t want them to work after dark or work at all as they have to be home to look after the children and take care of the households.”
But the situation, though tough, is not impossible as is evident from some of the reactions these ladies have faced in the line of their work. Sunija Rishi, founder of 'Nevanta’, an all-women video web magazine, says "Our focus was on women in the age group of 18-34 years in tier I and tier II cities and we made short videos on fashion and lifestyle for their benefits. In a society where video journalism is still primarily male dominated, our all-women team came as a pleasant surprise to many. We have covered many events and shows and everyone — designers, models, organisers — were delighted with the idea of a 'girls only’ team. Safety is always a concern though but barring the odd incident or two, it has been good.”
"We have had a few negative incidents too,” says Sunila. "Though our service is only for families, single women and senior citizens, men call and try to make bookings. There was a time when a man booked one of our cabs, saying that he had to go pick up his family from a mall. On the way, he tried to borrow money from the lady driver, saying that he had forgotten his wallet. When they reached the mall, he went inside the place and then didn’t come out. He didn’t pick up his phone also. It served as a learning experience for us and we realised what the market is like.”
"And then there are people who call up from far away places, sometimes even abroad, requesting us to take their aged parents to hospitals or other such places. The trust they place is us, whom they have never met, is one of the things that keeps us going,” she adds, smiling.
One of these is 'Go Pink Premium Cabs', an initiative started by cousins Sunila Suresh, Anuradha Udayshankar and Kalyani Krishna. It is the country's first cab service operated exclusively by women for women. "It was Anuradha's concept, born as a response to horrific incidents like the Nirbhaya case," explains Sunila. "We all liked the concept and joined hands with her, something that was fully supported by our husbands and families."
But they lacked this kind of encouragement from outside. "People would always tell us that this is not a women's job and we will not be able to keep it up," elaborates Sunila. "But though there were challenges, we were firm about our decision to take this forward and that is something that we have managed to do quite well."
The challenges that the team faced ranged from being greenhorns in the field of providing transport, lack of mentors and lack of stability of their own employees. "Finding interested women for this service was the biggest challenge. Though many signed up, quite a few of them quit within two to three months as they couldn't handle the pressure. Many also left because they had domestic responsibilities and couldn't manage everything together," she adds.
Archana Singh, founder of 'Seventh Sin', Asia's first all-women food truck, agrees with this statement and says that families can be the biggest champions or harshest critics of working women. "The women who work in my truck are from the underprivileged sections of society and this venture helps them be financially independent and increases their self-confidence. The only problems I have faced are from the families of these ladies who say that they don't want them to work after dark or work at all as they have to be home to look after the children and take care of the households."
But the situation, though tough, is not impossible as is evident from some of the reactions these ladies have faced in the line of their work. Sunija Rishi, founder of 'Nevanta', an all-women video web magazine, says "Our focus was on women in the age group of 18-34 years in tier I and tier II cities and we made short videos on fashion and lifestyle for their benefits. In a society where video journalism is still primarily male dominated, our all-women team came as a pleasant surprise to many. We have covered many events and shows and everyone — designers, models, organisers — were delighted with the idea of a 'girls only' team. Safety is always a concern though but barring the odd incident or two, it has been good."
"We have had a few negative incidents too," says Sunila. "Though our service is only for families, single women and senior citizens, men call and try to make bookings. There was a time when a man booked one of our cabs, saying that he had to go pick up his family from a mall. On the way, he tried to borrow money from the lady driver, saying that he had forgotten his wallet. When they reached the mall, he went inside the place and then didn't come out. He didn't pick up his phone also. It served as a learning experience for us and we realised what the market is like."
"And then there are people who call up from far away places, sometimes even abroad, requesting us to take their aged parents to hospitals or other such places. The trust they place is us, whom they have never met, is one of the things that keeps us going," she adds, smiling.
Behind every successful woman is a tribe of other women who have her back’ — one is inclined to agree with this in the wake of an increase in female participation in the workforce, across industries. This breaking of the glass barriers becomes even more pronounced when groups of women come together to form an organisation. And Bengaluru, the startup capital of India, is seeing quite a few women starting off on their own with enterprises that are truly the embodiments of 'women power’.One of these is 'Go Pink Premium Cabs’, an initiative started by cousins Sunila Suresh, Anuradha Udayshankar and Kalyani Krishna. It is the country’s first cab service operated exclusively by women for women. "It was Anuradha’s concept, born as a response to horrific incidents like the Nirbhaya case,” explains Sunila. "We all liked the concept and joined hands with her, something that was fully supported by our husbands and families.”
But they lacked this kind of encouragement from outside. "People would always tell us that this is not a women’s job and we will not be able to keep it up,” elaborates Sunila. "But though there were challenges, we were firm about our decision to take this forward and that is something that we have managed to do quite well.”
The challenges that the team faced ranged from being greenhorns in the field of providing transport, lack of mentors and lack of stability of their own employees. "Finding interested women for this service was the biggest challenge. Though many signed up, quite a few of them quit within two to three months as they couldn’t handle the pressure. Many also left because they had domestic responsibilities and couldn’t manage everything together,” she adds.
Archana Singh, founder of 'Seventh Sin’, Asia’s first all-women food truck, agrees with this statement and says that families can be the biggest champions or harshest critics of working women. "The women who work in my truck are from the underprivileged sections of society and this venture helps them be financially independent and increases their self-confidence. The only problems I have faced are from the families of these ladies who say that they don’t want them to work after dark or work at all as they have to be home to look after the children and take care of the households.”
But the situation, though tough, is not impossible as is evident from some of the reactions these ladies have faced in the line of their work. Sunija Rishi, founder of 'Nevanta’, an all-women video web magazine, says "Our focus was on women in the age group of 18-34 years in tier I and tier II cities and we made short videos on fashion and lifestyle for their benefits. In a society where video journalism is still primarily male dominated, our all-women team came as a pleasant surprise to many. We have covered many events and shows and everyone — designers, models, organisers — were delighted with the idea of a 'girls only’ team. Safety is always a concern though but barring the odd incident or two, it has been good.”
"We have had a few negative incidents too,” says Sunila. "Though our service is only for families, single women and senior citizens, men call and try to make bookings. There was a time when a man booked one of our cabs, saying that he had to go pick up his family from a mall. On the way, he tried to borrow money from the lady driver, saying that he had forgotten his wallet. When they reached the mall, he went inside the place and then didn’t come out. He didn’t pick up his phone also. It served as a learning experience for us and we realised what the market is like.”
"And then there are people who call up from far away places, sometimes even abroad, requesting us to take their aged parents to hospitals or other such places. The trust they place is us, whom they have never met, is one of the things that keeps us going,” she adds, smiling.