Uber India on Thursday announced a new fleet of women drivers in a move widely seen as a cleaning up of its image after a 27-year-old professional was raped in December last year, by a cab driver she hired to travel from Gurgaon to north Delhi. Partnering with Singapore-based firm iCare, the app-based taxi service announced that the trained women drivers, all of whom had undergone a women chauffeur certification course, will soon be seen on the roads of the Capital.
Refusing to divulge the number of women who will join the fleet, the service said that at present there were 15 women drivers. The service, that has services in 70 countries, pledged to hire 1 million through the world by 2020 as part of a new tie-up with the United Nations. Of them, the service pledged to hire 50,000 women drivers in India, where it operates in 11 cities including Delhi. Following the rape case, Uber introduced a panic button in February in its cabs, and also entered in a five-month long partnership with SafetiPin to collect safety data collection in Delhi.
The service, however, was clueless on the road ahead with regard to the ban the government had imposed on it after the rape case. "We have submitted the requisite documents to the transport department to apply for a radio taxi service license, and are awaiting its response," said Gagan Bhatia, general manager at Uber Technologies. When, in January this year, the taxi service restarted its operations, they said that they do not come under the purview of traditional taxi regulations. The leeway that they seemed to be employing was that Uber now does not charge taxi drivers for a commission, and hence, follows the lead of the government-run PoochO, a service developed by the Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit Service (DIMTS) that allows users to books cabs and rickshaws through the internet or phone calls.
The service was also clueless on the safety of its women drivers, let alone the safety of its women riders. Choosing to sidestep the question of the safety of its women drivers by talking about 'women empowerment', the Uber management present spoke of the intensive four-month training programme and defense course the women drivers for which they are not charged anything. "We have a tough training programme where we give the girls training on road training, personal grooming sessions and personality training. We will also give them chilli sprays and pepper sprays," said senior iCare executive Revathi Roy, who insisted that self-defense is a "art of the mind". Deval Delivala, India safety lead for Uber, said that "walk-in" for women drivers, who do not come under the programme, will go through a rigorous screening process.
They also refused to accept responsibility of its drivers. "At Uber, we consider every driver a partner and hence, do not dictate them what to do," said Bhatia.
