Kerala's She Taxi scores good revenues

Kerala's She Taxi, India's first 24x7 women-only cab service facilitated by the government, has generated more than Rs 15 lakh in revenue 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 cab service, which was introduced in Thiruvanathapuram 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.

On May 19, Kochi will become the second city in Kerala to have She Taxis on the road when chief minister Oommen Chandy officially launches the service.

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.

Minister for Social Justice, MK Muneer, said taxis would soon be introduced in Kozhikode, and in a phased manner in other locations.

"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, he said.

She Taxi has opened up a whole new avenue of employment for women, said KM Abraham, additional chief secretary, department of Social Justice. The customised pink and white taxis, supplied by Maruti Suzuki, have collectively covered more than 200,000 km in and out of the state. Women drivers have made outstation trips to Ponmudi and Munnar within Kerala and to destinations including Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.

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 (IFFK) last year. More than 1,500 women delegates travelled with the She Taxi during IFFK 2013.