It’s bad that we mostly villainise men and don’t speak about good men enough.
So here’s a thread on what Gulesh Chouhan shared with me about her experiences as a woman cab driver. Sharing as I think it needs to be told + https://twitter.com/swati_gs/status/1342083921438068738

In her 1st year at Uber, she was as a driver for someone & so couldn’t control work hours. They would extend till 11pm whereas now she does 6 am-8 pm. In late hours, men coming from parties would apologise to her for being drunk & politely cancel the cab, paying cancellation fee+

The first cab rental company she applied at, asked her to pay Rs40,000 as security. Learning of her situation, a man, who is like a brother to her now - helped her join another company & even gave her one of his cars to drive for a year. Also helped her hone her skills +

Some years ago, a male passengers heard her story during cab ride. After reaching home, he introduced her to his wife & family. Over next some weeks, the family gave her Rs 2 lakh so she could buy a car of her own.

Most of her passengers are men, they appreciate and encourage her, and leave generous feedbacks on Uber app, she says.
Her own college-going son cleans her car everyday before she starts work, keeps food cooked at times and is her biggest support, she says.

Actually, it was @SanjeevSanskrit who gave her contact to me. She happened to be the driver when he booked a cab. She was visibly stressed, but didn’t reveal much, except that the car needed servicing and business is really down since pandemic. He suggested I speak to her +

So I met her today. Though she was happy only with talking, I pressed her to share her problems. It was then that she said she was struggling with money & desperately looking for more work. For now, we gave her Rs 15000 through @sewanyaya which she accepted quite hesitatingly