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Feisty Ahmedabad woman driver fights for her rights

Gujarata’s first GSRTC woman driver is running from pillar to post for the gratuity due to her late husband.

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For 32 long years, she battled male domination in a career that was considered unsuitable for women. And now 63-year-old Jamunaben Gurjar, Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation's first woman driver, finds herself fighting yet another battle.

This time her struggle is for the payment of the gratuity that the state government owes her deceased husband. Jamunaben has made innumerable trips to Gandhinagar but all her efforts have been in vain so far.

This Independence Day, Jamunaben staged a dharna in front of Mahatma Gandhi's statue at the Income-Tax circle in the city but she was taken away by the Navrangpura police. On her request, Ahmedabad police commissioner SK Saikia wrote to the secretary of the animal husbandry department, Rajiv Kumar Gupta, requesting him to look into her case.

Her husband, Ghanshyam Gurjar, died while serving as a driver with the A'bad Dairy 20 years back. She has made several appeals to government officials to give her the gratuity that was payable to her husband at his death.

Jamunaben had forgotten about her husband’s gratuity which has to be paid to her as she happens to be Ghanshyam Gurjar’s wife. The gratuity amount comes to Rs7.5 lakh.

It was only when the district authorities tried to throw her daughter-in-law out of the staff quarters of Abad Dairy where her husband (Jamunaben's late son) worked, did the feisty woman decide to take action. Abad Dairy used to be run by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) but was later handed over to the Gujarat Dairy Development Corporation, Gandhinagar.

“It is society that turns women into Phoolan Devi and it is the same society that creates women like Ela Bhatt (founder of Sewa),”she says. “Elaben has always been my mentor. She is the one who inspired me to become a driver in the male-dominated GSRTC. With her, I had even met the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the Emergency when I was about to join the corporation."

Jamunaben says it was her husband who taught her to drive heavy vehicles and helped her get a licence. However, her job as a driver with the GSRTC was not easy. “There were several roadblocks but I didn't complain. They kept me as a daily wager for 17 years during my 32-year-long service and even gave me sewage tankers to drive but I didn't say a word. I wanted to drive a passenger bus but I didn't get the opportunity. And yet, I don't have any regrets. All I want is the money that rightfully belonged to my husband,” she told DNA.

Meanwhile, despite many attempts, animal husbandry department secretary Gupta was not available for comment.

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