Three-wheeler lady

“I was surprised. Anybody would have been surprised to see a woman autorickshaw driver,” Gokhale said,adding that it was a first for her.

Philomena Fernandes,one of the few woman autorickshaw drivers in Mumbai and the main breadwinner of her family of five,started driving an autorickshaw 17-years-ago,when she was in desperate need of money. Born and brought up in Chembur,Fernandes studied till Class VIII at St Anthony’s School. She was married when she was about 15 and lost her husband at a very early age.

“Both my sons were very young at that time. I had to bring them up,educate them all by myself,” Fernandes recalled. “I had no choice but to start working.”

Her neighbour,who drives an autorickshaw,suggested the profession to Fernandes. He helped her get a permit,driving license and even taught her how to drive a three-wheeler.

In 1994,with the help of a loan she paid Rs 80,000 to buy her own autorickshaw and since then has been proudly driving the vehicle in Mumbai,mostly within Chembur. “Now all auto drivers in my area know me,so they don’t find the sight of a woman driver unfamiliar. But when I go to other areas,drivers and other people give me surprised looks,” Fernandes said,adding that some have even asked her to pose for a picture.

“I wasn’t scared at all,” she fondly remembers her first day on the job in 1994. “Some people laughed at me,cracked jokes and stared,but I went on as my family was very supportive.” She gradually started offering her services to schools,to pick up and drop students.

Fernandes generally doesn’t have any problems with her customers,as most don’t argue or fight seeing a woman. But she has a rule. She is not keen on taking men coming out of beer bars or couples “clinging on to each other”. She added: “I ferry schoolchildren. I don’t want them or their parents to see me with indecent passengers and think how could she let someone like that in her rickshaw.”

Fernandes enjoys her job. She interacts with other drivers in her area,mechanics and shopkeepers selling maintenance equipment for vehicles with familiarity and ease. They know her story and respect her. “It’s not something every woman can do. Only someone with a lot of guts can enter a male-dominated field like this,” said Deepak Keval,the mechanic who tends to Fernandes’ autorickshaw.

The only grouse Fernandes has is bad roads,which get worse during the monsoon,pushing up the maintenance cost for her vehicle. She has already taken her autorickshaw for repairs three times this week and expects her month’s expenditure to cross Rs 10,000.

Fernandes’ children,Simon and Faisal,are now graduates. While one is searching for an IT job,the other,looking up to his mother,has started driving an autorickshaw. Simon got married a few years ago and has a five-year-old son. “I feel so proud of my mother. She has brought us up so well,” Simon said.

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