Bengal girl drives e-rickshaw to pay her way through college and support family

A 21-year-old college girl from Katwa, West Bengal, is paying for her education and supporting her family single-handedly as a female e-rickshaw driver in her town.

Through the lanes of a small town named Katwa in West Bengal, a bright blue e-rickshaw is running proudly these days. In the beginning, it wasn’t much welcomed. But eventually, it not only became everyone’s favourite, but also one famous ‘toto’.

And this bright blue ‘toto’ — as the e-rickshaws are called in Bengal — has earned its fame because of its 21-year-old female driver.

A third-year BA student, Supriya Roy runs her e-rickshaw to afford her college education and support her family, where she is the sole breadwinner.

After her daily wager father became bedridden with illness a couple of months ago, Supriya took up riding the e-rickshaw to keep her family afloat. But in the streets, most people discouraged her.

A report in Anandabazaar Patrika narrates how commuters would back away from riding Supriya’s e-rickshaw after seeing a woman in the driver’s seat. For some people, it was a shocking change; for others, it was an act of audacity.

Neighbours would advise her parents to stop her and also encourage them to get her married because “a daughter driving a ‘toto’ down the streets could only bring bad name to the family.”

But the daring college-goer did not let anything de-motivate her. Her priorities, after all, were to care for her family apart from also continuing her studies.

Her mother, Mamata Roy, also did not pay heed to the foul suggestions. “She has been running the family single-handedly,” Mamata told the daily. “That is not an easy job. We don’t care about what people have to say anymore,” she added.