She Taxi Generates Big Revenues for Women Entrepreneurs

TechnoparkToday.com>> May 14, 2014: Kerala’s She Taxi, India’s first 24×7 women-only cab service facilitated by the government, has generated more than Rs 15 lakhs in revenues in just five months of its launch, helped by an increase in women passengers looking for safe travel options within and outside cities.

The women-owned, women-operated service introduced in Thiruvananthapuram in November last year with an initial fleet of five cars has now expanded to 20 cabs and has carried more than 9,000 passengers so far.

On May 19, Kochi will become the second city in Kerala to have She Taxis on the road when Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri Oommen Chandy officially launches the service there.

“The project has achieved remarkable progress both in terms of popularity and earnings in the last six months. We started this business model to help women entrepreneurs earn a monthly income of at least Rs 20,000, but the incomes are comfortably above that level,” Said Dr M K Muneer, Minister for Social Justice.

The customized pink and white taxis have collectively covered more than 2,00,000 kilometres inside and outside the state. The women drivers have made outstation trips to Ponmudi and Munnar within Kerala and to destinations including Kanyakumari and Thirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.

The She Taxi service has so far received 3,700 trip bookings, night time travel accounting for around 1,600 of these. It was the official travel partner of the International Film Festival of Kerala last year. More than 1,500 women delegates travelled with the She Taxi during IFFK 2013.

She Taxi is the first off-campus project initiated by the Gender Park, established by Kerala’s Department of Social Justice to unify all activities aimed at attaining gender equity.