Taxis, taxis, everywhere! Private online taxi services vie with each other to lure customers in cities like Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram while traditional taxis line the roads near airports and railway stations. Amidst the hullabaloo, She Taxi , the government-run, women-owned and women-driven 24/7 taxi service, seem to have become a rare sight. Is the service having a tough time keeping up with the online services? We find out.The Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation (KSWDC) had taken charge of the She Taxi project last year from Gender Park, an autonomous institution promoted by the Social Justice Department. The lack of an online system for booking is just one of the reasons for the decline of She Taxi, though. With just 30 vehicles across the State, the service comes nowhere next to the two main online cab companies in number, which have around 4000 taxis each in their network, says an official source. “She Taxi is definitely finding it tough to survive in the rat race for customers. First, we have very few women in the State opting to be drivers and secondly, the ride rates are government approved. There is no chance of competing with the giants,” the source says.“In order to attract more women drivers and fetch them more income, the entire project has to be redesigned. The fares have to made affordable to cater to the demands of the market. That said, though we have given advertisements inviting more drivers, unfortunately, female drivers have not applied, owing to the poor state of theproject.”The officials have now integrated a new networking system through which the customer can dial the helpline number 181, which works 24*7. “Even in the event of safety concerns, both the passenger and the driver can dial the helpline,” says the source. The service had 50 drivers initially, which has now been brought down to 30, which implies that some drivers have decided to call it quits. Kollam resident Razia S was among the first few women drivers who joined the squad at Thiruvananthapuram in 2013, with stars in her eyes.However, things did not go as she hoped for, following which she had to opt out in 2015. She says, “Being someone who has seen the good and the bad days, I still believe that She Taxi has the potential to make it big and make a lot of women in our State self-reliant. But it lacked foresight.”Though she has left the job, Razia still has the taxi she drove as a sweet memory she will always cherish, she says. “I’m keen to team up with the project again, once it is revived,” she says.She adds, “We were, and are still ready to work anytime during the day, but the authorities concerned failed to pay heed to our grievances. Even back then, we had considerably fewer number of orders. With the online taxi services trying to outdo each other, it only got worse.”The number of vehicles and availability is more for their competitors, compared to She Taxi, according to her. “When someone makes a booking, within seconds, the customer will get to know the details with the help of technology. The safety of the passengers and the drivers are not compromised either.”While She Taxi charged `13 per kilometre initially, it came to an all-time low of eight rupees, later. Razia adds that that the car loans each driver has incurred has had a heavy toll on their finances, which was why she had to put an end to her aspirations and venture into business.Asha Kumari, who is still a She Taxi driver, says it is not an easy road to take. “I had joined way back in 2013, at a time when driving used to be a male bastion. It was seen as a revolutionary move for women. But it never really kicked off. The number of rides we manage to get have been dropping with each passing day.” Their financial liabilities have been such that many are left with no choice but to bid goodbye to their dreams, she adds.The surging popularity of online cab services can be attributed to a well-organised system to operate the services, according to Asha. “We have demanded a similar system and have now been assured that a call centre would be put in place soon.” The model itself was so inspiring that others such as Kudumbashree Travels have followed suit.Executive director of Kudumbashree, S Harikishore, says that they have plans to outsource the vehicles so that the burden of buying them would not fall on the driver. “We will also be training women from across the State. It would be more effective if the drivers are given the freedom to choose the number of trips and hours, so that they would get additional amounts when possible, like with our private counterparts,” she says.

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