The timing of the article couldn’t have been more apt. At a time when the entire world is talking about women empowerment and safety, here is a service that has taken a firsthand initiative. The Pune-based cab service – Skylar Cabs – has decided to make the city roads safer for women by launching an all-women cab service, oriented at transforming the way women commute in the city. The service is headed by Mr. Sandeep Kale, who is the CEO of Skylar Cabs and Mr. Mayur Balsane, a pivotal member of the Skylar team. Mr. Sandeep Kale holds a master’s degree in social work – HR and Mr. Mayur envisions a world where the roads and streets are safe for women regardless of the hour of the day.
Today’s lifestyle is all about survival. Income from one day job is hardly enough to meet the basic requirements and the days of one breadwinner per family are gone. It is the phase of women empowerment, where the ladies are stepping out of their home in style and excelling in every field they are venturing into. However, our journey is not smooth. It’s a sugarcoated road of hindrances and troubles we have to walk on every single day.
If there’s handling household chores before leaving to work on one side, there is the perpetual struggle to get to workplace peacefully every day. From the time we step out of the house, we are bombarded with strings of chaos. It doesn’t matter if there are enough metro rail services, buses or local trains and even the fact that some of them are dedicated for our commute, no mode of commute offers absolute peace of mind.
The time during commute is the only instance we, as women, get to seek solace in a world of our own. From listening to the music of our choice or to having casual rendezvous with a commute-friend about the world and more, it is the only time we get to be ourselves.
Unfortunately, it turns out that we don’t have the smallest of luxury on this as well. An average woman has to encounter hundreds of hurdles before she can get to work or come back from one. And it’s not the only instance. we also have to reconsider our evening plans to get home before dark. Reason – unsafe roads for women.
And once back home, the cycle of household chores starts spinning all over again. Cabs are convenient options, agreed. But do they offer total peace of mind? Read between the lines. Do they?
However, it is good to note that amidst the thousands of us who have taken our struggling commute as a way of life, a few minds thought otherwise. Some people out there realized this to be unfair and questioned themselves,”Why shouldn’t women have better ways to commute?” An answer to this and other intricately related questions is the Skylar Cabs – the all-women cab service that is about to hit the roads of Pune very soon.
Skylar Cabs comes up with not just a superficial solution. It has gone into the lengths and breadths of the everyday concerns of women and has detailed out two effective ways to empower women. Firstly, the cabs from Skylar are driven entirely by women regardless of the time and hour of the day. When you book a cab, you get a woman driver, who would take you to your preferred destination. Period.
Secondly, Skylar cabs has also opened up an avenue of opportunities for you and me to venture into a career in driving and pave way for an income source. Through what the company believes empowering women through women, Skylar intends to shatter conventions in the society by making women embrace the roads and shine at it. You can now enroll as a driver with Skylar and become skilled employees with regular flow of lucrative income.
One of the major reasons why this works is, because there is a definite need for women safety and this can be achieved when women pick each other up and stand united. The lack of such exclusivity for women commute in the market makes for a good career choice if you are looking for one. When it comes to safety and security, Skylar cabs shares that it has all necessary equipment in place. There are panic buttons in its fleet of cabs, speed dial, GPS systems, safety kits, SOS and In-Case-of-Emergency numbers, which will raise an alarm when pressed.
There is also a vigilance team of ex-army perssonel on 24-hours standby to tackle any emergency that may arise during commute. Further, the cabs are well maintained and serviced and checked at regular intervals to avoid any shortcoming in commute.
The women chauffeurs are also oriented towards the vision of service than revenue. They are trained in multiple languages, self-defense and the roadmap of Pune. Skylar cabs also intends to enhance the experience of its service by offering special discounts and slashed prices for the differently abled, senior women, pregnant ladies, ex-army personnel or the police. Of all the convenience that it aims to offer, the cab service putting an end to paranoia that fills in during late night commute is indeed relieving. Apart from Mr. Mayur and Sandeep, the prime team at Skylar Cabs consists of Mr. Arabinda Pillai, the technological head and Mr. Shivraj Fattarfode, the head of finance.
The move by the people behind the Skylar Cabs service to make independent women more independent and empowered is a refreshing change the society desperately needs. This puts an end to any question, stare or judgment that makes any of us creep out when on the road again. Let’s look forward to more such services that put women and their needs forward than anything else.
