Himachal: RSETI trains women cabbies in Shimla

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], May 11 (ANI): Shimla, the erstwhile princely state, has initiated the 'cab driving training' course for rural women at the Rural Self-Employment Training Institute (RSETI) with an objective of making women self reliant and promoting state tourism. RSETI, an initiative of Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), has dedicated infrastructure in each district of the country to impart training and skill up-gradation of rural youth geared towards entrepreneurship development. The authorities have selected nearly two dozen women from nearby rural areas of the city. These women are being trained to become entrepreneurs in the coming future. A couple of women, enrolled for training here, hail from rural background and are housewives. The Director of the institute said, "It has been possible because of district administration's keen interest. The main motive behind training women as drivers is to prepare women cabbies in Shimla to facilitate and make the fairer sex feel safe and secured to travel using cabs. These women have been selected out of two hundred applicants." One of the local housewives, Nisha Garg, who has enrolled in the programme, said, "To be able to drive is imperative these days and I am certain to become an entrepreneur and rope in more people in this venture." Himachal Pradesh University Student, Preeti Chauhan, expressed that she wanted to earn livelihood from this profession and her family's advocacy emboldened her to pursue this driving course. "I will encourage other girls from my area to come out of their respective homes and work towards being financially independent," said Chauhan. Sangeeta Thakur, a local, said, "I am learning to drive in the pursuit of becoming self reliant. Driving is not some herculean task that a woman cannot practice." "Our society yet not supports the thought of us working to earn our livelihood," Thakur added. Another, local woman Nidhi, said that with this course she has commenced feeling empowered and will assist her husband financially in the near future. RSETIs are managed by banks with active co-operation from the Government of India and state governments. They are spread all across the country as an institution to mitigate the unemployment and underemployment problems among the rural youth in the country. There are 116's RSETI's all over the country. (ANI)