Bus, itna sa khwaab hai!

It takes three lean days at work for Bharati to finish her paperback. And she has mastered the art of reading while in constant motion, most often on a rough track and leaning on to a metal pole. For the adolescent students of the Govt Junior College in Nampally in Hyderabad, Sheela 'Akka' is a great source of inspiration. And advice and counseling! They enjoy their daily journey with her while getting back from college. And Suneeta confesses to a temptation to ring out a piercing whistle and shout at the top of her voice “Right Right!” – “just the way we saw the bus conductors doing all through our lives.”
All these women are conductors on the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transportation Corporation buses, attached to one of the 21 bus depots in Hyderabad. They are among the 5000 plus conductors recruited across the State during the past four years as part of APSRTC’s implementation of 33 per cent reservation for women in all cadres.
The slightly framed women, who wear a grey jacket over their saree or shalwar kameez, wield the full cash bag as well as the sheaf of tickets with aplomb.
Recruitment of women in the APSRTC – which has the distinction of having the largest fleet of buses in the world under a single owner, 20,000 buses - happened without much ado. While the first conductor was recruited in 2001, the number has now grown to 5098. There are also 126 women working as mechanical supervisors and 146 as traffic supervisors.
And Conductors are only one of the segments. RTC has women in every cadre – from mechanical supervisors to Depot Managers.
When it is time for change of shift at the RTC bus depots, there is a huge bustle with new arrivals checking out their tickets and those who finished depositing their cash. Chai, chat and community interaction has to happen during those twenty minutes because, very soon, the women are on wheels.
“There is the occasional smart Alec or someone who wants to feel you up, but we set them right in two minutes. I once slapped a guy for misbehaving with me and refused to let the bus move until he got off. Others on the bus were more than enthusiastic to throw him out,” Suneetha recalls with glee. “We do get complaints of misbehaviour, more often about the drivers and other male colleagues rather than outsiders. We have an effective mechanism in place to deal with it,” Madhavi, Manager (IT), APSRTC, reveals.
APSRTC has set up a Women Grievance Redressal Cell but the complaints are mainly regarding service matters rather than any harassment. “But we have enough evidence to suggest there is harassment. We are doing what we can even without formal complaints,” an RTC official says.
For Sheela, mother of two kids, the work is strenuous. The seven hour shift, the one hour commuting from home and the long hours spent in motion tire her out by the time she reaches home. “But I am grateful for the fact that we were not denied this income opportunity by labeling it a job not meant for women,” she says.
“In fact, we have strict reservation rules even for selection of drivers. But then it is rare that we find a woman who has a heavy vehicle licence and five years experience driving a heavy vehicle,” the official says. Interestingly, the organisation saw a need to teach the lady conductors self-defence techniques. “All our lady conductors underwent Karate classes for a week. Except for this, there is no other way we distinguish between male and female employees,” Madhavi explains.
And though the crossover has been quiet, RTC does seem to keep the ‘delicate sensibilities’ – of the women in mind while assigning some duties. The women get to take the longest route so that there is no jumping about. Except for the mechanical staff, nobody needs to work on late night shifts and the management effectively quells male colleagues with ego hassles.
Some of the concern Sheela has for her children waiting at home is transferred into solving the small problems of her regular adolescent passengers. Whether it is soothing college blues or discussing the latest film, from hair care tips to preventing an early marriage of one of the girls, Sheela does much more than just punching tickets during her eventful day at work.